An army of lions commanded by a deer will never be an army of lions.
Strategy is the art of making use of time and space. I am less concerned about the latter than the former. Space we can recover, lost time never.
The human race is governed by its imagination.
I feel myself driven towards an end that I do not know. As soon as I shall have reached it, as soon as I shall become unnecessary, an atom will suffice to shatter me. Till then, not all the forces of mankind can do anything against me.
The transition from the defensive to the offensive is one of the most delicate operations in war.
It is in times of difficulty that great nations like great men display the whole energy of their character and become an object of admiration to posterity.
Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
In war, men are nothing, one man is everything.
In war there is but one favorable moment; the great art is to seize it!
In tragedy great men are more truly great than in history. We see them only in the crises which unfold them.
It is only with prudence, sagacity, and much dexterity that great aims are accomplished, and all obstacles surmounted. Otherwise nothing is accomplished.
What are the conditions that make for the superiority of an army? Its internal organization, military habits in officers and men, the confidence of each in themselves; that is to say, bravery, patience, and all that is contained in the idea of moral means.
Man loves the marvelous. It has an irresistible charm for him. He is always ready to leave that with which he is familiar to pursue vain inventions. He lends himself to his own deception.
A well-composed song strikes the mind and softens the feelings, and produces a greater effect than a moral work, which convinces our reason, but does not warm our feelings, nor effect the slightest alteration in our habits.
Peoples of Egypt, you will be told that I have come to destroy your religion. Do not believe it! Reply that I have come to restore your rights!
I would believe any religion that could prove it had existed since the beginning of the world. But when I see Socrates, Plato, Moses, and Mohammed I do not think there is such a one. All religions owe their origin to man.
The leader’s role is to define reality, then give hope.
To extraordinary circumstance we must apply extraordinary remedies.
To write history one must be more than a man, since the author who holds the pen of this great justiciary must be free from all preoccupation of interest or vanity.
The only one who is wiser than anyone is everyone.