The secret of great battles consists in knowing how to deploy and concentrate at the right time.
For my part, it is not the mystery of the incarnation which I discover in religion, but the mystery of social order, which associates with heaven that idea of equality which prevents the rich from destroying the poor.
I don’t employ Talleyrand when I want a thing done, but only when I want to have the appearance of wanting to do it.
We are born, we live, we die among supernatural.
It’s the unconquerable soul of man, and not the nature of the weapon he uses, that ensures victory.
In war, three-quarters turns on personal character and relations; the balance of manpower and materials counts only for the remaining quarter.
It is cowardly to commit suicide. The English often kill themselves. It is a malady caused by the humid climate.
When defending itself against another country, a nation never lacks men, but too often, soldiers.
You cannot stop me; I spend thirty thousand men a month.
Man, not men, is the most important consideration.
The mind of a general ought to resemble and be as clear as the field-glass of a telescope.
The art of land warfare is an art of genius, of inspiration. On the sea nothing is genius or inspiration; everything is positive or empiric.
The allies we gain by victory will turn against us upon the bare whisper of our defeat.
The admiral needs only one science, that of navigation. The general needs all the sciences.
In war the simplest manoeuvres are the best.
In revolution there are only two sorts of men, those who cause them and those who profit by them.
From triumph to downfall there is but one step. I have noted that, in the most momentous occasions, mere nothings have always decided the outcome of the greatest events.
There shall be no Alps.
Europe thus divided into nationalities freely formed and free internally, peace between States would have become easier: the United States of Europe would become a possibility.
Every hour of lost time is a chance of future misfortune.