“In war, the general alone can judge of certain arrangements. It depends on him alone to conquer difficulties by his own superior talents and resolution.”
“A man is not dependent upon his fellow creature, when he does not fear death.”
“When I want any, good head work done; I always choose a man, if possible with a long nose.”
“A new-born Government must shine and astonish - the moment it loses its éclat it falls.”
“Let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.”
“Without cavalry, battles are without result.”
“What is history but a fable agreed upon?”
“Tragedy warms the soul, elevates the heart, can and ought to create heroes. In this sense, perhaps, France owes a part of her great actions to Corneille.”
“Give me enough ribbons to place on the tunics of my soldiers and I can conquer the world.”
“The hand that gives is among the hand that takes. Money has no fatherland, financiers are without patriotism and without decency, their sole object is gain.”
“Nothing makes the future look so rosy as to contemplate it through a glass of Chambertin.”
“Prussia was hatched from a cannon-ball.”
“The great proof of madness is the disproportion of one's designs to one's means.”
“Good and decent people must be protected and persuaded by gentle means, but the rabble must be led by terror.”
“There are so many laws that no one is safe from hanging.”
“Half of the people in the world are below average.”
“Take a dose of medicine once, and in all probability you will be obliged to take an additional hundred afterwards”
“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.”
“Promptly improve your accidents.”
“A victorious general must know how to employ severity, justness, and mildness by turns, if he would allay sedition or prevent it.”
“The admiral needs only one science, that of navigation. The general needs all the sciences.”
“I shall be an Attila to Venice.”
“Public esteem is the recompense of honest men.”
“I have never loved anyone for love's sake except, perhaps, Josephine - a little.”
“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”
