I admit that I myself am far from having a complete command of every topic I touch on, but my knowledge of my subject is always greater than the interest or the understanding of my auditors. You see, there is one very good thing about mankind; the mediocre masses make very few demands of the mediocrities of a higher order, submitting stupidly and cheerfully to their guidance

Every man has seen the wall that limits his mind.

Perform your long and heavy task with energy, treading the path to which Fate has been pleased to call you.

What it values most of all is the sum total of events and the advance of civilization, which carries individuals along with it; but, indifferent to details, it cares less to have them real than noble or, rather, grand and complete.

An army is a nation within a nation, it is one of the vices of courage.

The existence of the soldier, next to capital punishment, is the most grievous vestige of barbarism which survives among men.

One might almost reckon mathematically that, having undergone the double composition of public opinion and of the author, their history reaches us at third hand and is thus separated by two stages from the original fact.