Do you know what is more hard to bear than the reverses of fortune? It is the baseness, the hideous ingratitude, of man.
When I was happy I thought I knew men, but it was fated that I should know them in misfortune only.
Patriotism is a word which represents a noble idea.
It strengthens the bonds between nations to have the same civil laws and the same monetary system.
Agriculture is the soul and chief support of empires; industry produces riches and the happiness of the people; exportation represents the superabundance, and good use of both.
Nothing renders a nation so despicable as religious despotism.
We should wash our dirty linen at home.
We are nothing but by the law.
Military despotism represses generous sentiments, priestly tyranny stifles them.
Timid and cowardly soldiers cause the loss of a nation’s independence; but pusillanimous magistrates destroy the empire of the laws, the rights of the throne, and even social order itself.
There is no Nation however small which had the right to set itself free, that has not rescued itself from the dishonour of obeying the Prince imposed by an enemy in the hour of victory.
France needs nothing so much to promote her regeneration as good mothers.
I have doubtless erred more or less in politics, but a crime I never committed.
The fate of war is to be exalted in the morning, and low enough at night! There is but one step from triumph to ruin.
Tis a principle of war that when you can use the lightning, ’tis better than cannon.
All the women in the world would not make me lose an hour.
It must be recognized that the real truths of history are hard to discover. Happily, for the most part, they are rather matters of curiosity than of real importance.
The World is not ruined by the wickedness of the wicked, but by the weakness of the good.
Laws which are consistent in theory often prove chaotic in practice.
Rigorous authority and justice are the kindness of kings.