“In politics... never retreat, never retract... never admit a mistake.”
“Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.”
“A people which is able to say everything becomes able to do everything.”
“Ten persons who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.”
“Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”
“The art of the police is not to see what it is useless that it should see.”
“Great people are meteors designed to burn so that the earth may be lighted.”
“If you wish to be success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.”
“Every private in the French army carries a Field Marshall wand in his knapsack.”
“Order marches with weighty and measured strides. Disorder is always in a hurry.”
“The great proof of madness is the disproportion of one's designs to one's means.”
“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”
“If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon-shots.”
“Riches do not consist in the possession of treasures, but in the use made of them.”
“Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals.”
“Large legislative bodies resolve themselves into coteries, and coteries into jealousies.”
“You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your tricks of war.”
“One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority.”
“When I want any, good head work done; I always choose a man, if possible with a long nose.”
“Do you know what amazes me more than anything else? The impotence of force to organize anything.”
“When soldiers have been baptized in the fire of a battle-field, they have all one rank in my eyes.”
“Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.”
“When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.”
“The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.”
“I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle this matter by lunch time.”
“True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life, in whatever shape they may challenge us to combat.”
“The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.”
“Music of all the arts has the most influence on the passions and the legislator should give it the greatest encouragement.”
“The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know.”
“There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.”