"I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other."

"The human race is governed by its imagination."

"A true man hates no one."

"History is a set of lies agreed upon."

"Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent."

"Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment."

"The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to destiny."

"The French complain of everything, and always."

"Courage is like love; it must have hope to nourish it."

"The act of policing is, in order to punish less often, to punish more severely."

"Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy."

"Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools."

"Forethought we may have, undoubtedly, but not foresight."

"Victory belongs to the most persevering."

"We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him."

"It requires more courage to suffer than to die."

"To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god."

"There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time."

"The best way to keep one's word is not to give it."

"A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights."

"When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity."

"The word impossible is not in my dictionary."

"Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets."

"Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide."

"There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous."

"With audacity one can undertake anything, but not do everything."

"If you want a thing done well, do it yourself."

"If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing."

"I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up."

"One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority."

"Ability is nothing without opportunity."

"In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage."

"A leader is a dealer in hope."

"The great proof of madness is the disproportion of one's designs to one's means."

"Water, air, and cleanness are the chief articles in my pharmacy."

"One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent."

"Let the path be open to talent."

"From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us."

"Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult."

"Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows."

"Circumstances - what are circumstances? I make circumstances."

"Women are nothing but machines for producing children."

"Throw off your worries when you throw off your clothes at night."

"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."

"Large legislative bodies resolve themselves into coteries, and coteries into jealousies."

"Greatness be nothing unless it be lasting."

"Great people are meteors designed to burn so that the earth may be lighted."

"Music, of all the liberal arts, has the greatest influence over the passions, and it is that to which the legislator ought to give the greatest encouragement"

"Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress."

"I made all my generals out of mud."