In statesmanship there are predicaments from which it is impossible to escape without some wrongdoing.
Unhappy the general who comes on the field of battle with a system.
Every man who is worth thirty millions and is not wedded to them, is dangerous to the government.
If I were an Englishman, I should esteem the man who advised a war with China to be the greatest living enemy of my country. You would be beaten in the end, and perhaps a revolution in India would follow.
Un croquis vaut mieux qu.
True heroism consists in rising superior to misfortune.
What a beautiful fix we are in now; peace has been declared.
Prison, blood, death, create enthusiasts and martyrs, and bring forth courage and desperate resolution.
If obedience is the result of the instinct of the masses, revolt is the result of their thought.
We may stop ourselves when going up, never when coming down.
In a narrow sphere great men are blunderers.
The merit of Mahomet is that he founded a religion without an inferno.
How many really capable men are children more than once during the day!
In order that a people may be free, it is necessary that the governed be sages, and those who govern, gods.
The inevitable end of multiple chiefs is that they fade and disappear for lack of unity.
Since the discovery of printing, knowledge has been called to power, and power has been used to make knowledge a slave.
France always has plenty men of talent, but it is always deficient in men of action and high character.
Never depend on the multitude, full of instability and whims; always take precautions against it.
In my youth I, too, entertained some illusions; but I soon recovered from them.
Everything is more or less organized matter. To think so is against religion, but I think so just the same.