The leader's role is to define reality, then give hope
The keys of a fortress are always well worth the retirement of the garrison when it is resolved to yield only on those conditions. On this principle it is always wiser to grant an honorable capitulation to a garrison which has made a vigorous resistance than to risk an assault.
Rascality has limits; stupidity has not.
There are only two forces that unite men - fear and interest.
Machiavelli is right: one always must live with one's friends with the idea that they may turn into one's enemies. He should have said, with everyone.
Envy is a declaration of inferiority.
Mankind's worst enemy is fear of work
When defending itself against another country, a nation never lacks men, but too often, soldiers.
A good sketch is better than a long speech.
A man who has no consideration for the needs of his men ought never to be given command.
An army of lions commanded by a deer will never be an army of lions.
Independence, like honor, is a rocky island, without a beach.
I base my calculation on the expectation that luck will be against me.
There are two merits that glorify a person: being courageous for a man and being virtuous for a woman. Besides these two, there is another merit that glorifies both man and woman: so much loving the homeland to an extent with being ready to sacrifice his/her life, if needed. Turks are such courageous and virtuous people. That is why you can kill a Turk but you can never defeat them.
All generals, officers, and soldiers who capitulate in battle to save their own lives should be decimated.
Those who have changed the universe have never done it by changing officials, but always by inspiring the people.
Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals.
When I had the honor to be a second lieutenant, I ate dry bread, but I never let anyone know that I was poor.
Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Each state claims the right to control interests foreign to itself when those interests are such that it can control them without putting its own interests in danger. ... other powers only recognize this right of intervening in proportion as the country doing it has the power to do it.
Among so many conflicting ideas and so many different perspectives, the honest man is confused and distressed and the skeptic becomes wicked ... Since one must take sides, one might as well choose the side that is victorious, the side which devastates, loots, and burns. Considering the alternative, it is better to eat than to be eaten.
We live and die in the midst of marvels.
Men grow old quickly on the battlefield.
Men who have changed the world never achieved their success by winning the chief citizens to their side, but always by stirring the masses.
To extraordinary circumstance we must apply extraordinary remedies.
We are nothing but by the law.
In tragedy great men are more truly great than in history. We see them only in the crises which unfold them.
Better to have an open enemy, than hidden friends.
He who cannot look over a battlefield with a dry eye, causes the death of many men uselessly.
Many a one commits a reprehensible action, who is at bottom an honourable man, because man seldom acts upon natural impulse, but from some secret passion of the moment which lies hidden and concealed within the narrowest folds of his heart.
In war, three-quarters turns on personal character and relations; the balance of manpower and materials counts only for the remaining quarter.
The greater the man, the less is he opinionative, he depends upon events and circumstances.
Conscription is the vitality of a nation, the purification of its morality, and the real foundations of all its habits
In the last analysis, one must be a military man in order to govern. It is only with boot and spurs that one can govern a horse.
Without cavalry, battles are without result.
Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.
So you think the police foresees and knows everything. The police invents more than it discovers.
If I always appear prepared, it is because before entering an undertaking, I have meditated long and have foreseen what might occur. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly and secretly what I should do in circumstances unexpected by others; it is thought and preparation
If the art of war were nothing but the art of avoiding risks, glory would become the prey of mediocre minds.... I have made all the calculations; fate will do the rest.
Die young, and I shall accept your death-but not if you have lived without glory, without being useful to your country, without leaving a trace of your existence: for that is not to have lived at all.
Bloodletting is among the ingredients of political medicine.
All becomes easy when we follow the current of opinion; it is the ruler of the world.
I am a soldier and accustomed to risking my life every day. I am full of the fire of youth; I cannot act with the restraint of an accomplished diplomat.
Called to the throne by the voice of the people, my maxim has always been: A career open to talent without distinction of birth. It is this system of equality for which the European oligarchy detests me
Whatever shall we do in that remote spot? Well, we will write our memoirs. Work is the scythe of time.
The more I study the world, the more I am convinced of the inability of brute force to create anything durable.
To understand the man you have to know what was happening in the world when he was twenty.
Surely in a matter of this kind we should endeavor to do something, that we may say that we have not lived in vain, that we may leave some impress of ourselves on the sands of time.
Equality should be the chief basis of the education of youth.
Send me 300 francs; that sum will enable me to go to Paris. There, at least, one can cut a figure and surmount obstacles. Everything tells me I shall succeed. Will you prevent me from doing so for the want of 100 crowns?
Pure politics is merely the calculus of combinations and of chances.
I have fought sixty battles, and I have learnt nothing which I did not know at the beginning.
A man becomes the creature of his uniform.
When I give a minister an order, I leave it to him to find the means to carry it out.
Water, air, and cleanness are the chief articles in my pharmacy.
He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.
Ability is of little account without opportunity. I have very rarely met with two o'clock in the morning courage: I mean instantaneous courage.
There is no man more pusillanimous than I when I am planning a campaign. I purposely exaggerate all the dangers and all the calamities that the circumstances make possible. I am in a thoroughly painful state of agitation. This does not keep me from looking quite serene in front of my entourage; I am like an unmarried girl laboring with child. Once I have made up my mind, everything is forgotten except what leads to success.
High politic is only common sense applied to great things.
Men, in general, are but great children.
