satire is a wrapping of exaggeration around a core of reality.

Disaster is rarely as pervasive as it seems from recorded accounts. The fact of being on the record makes it appear continuous and ubiquitous whereas it is more likely to have been sporadic both in time and place.

To put away one's own original thoughts in order to take up a book is a sin against the Holy Ghost.

When people don't have an objective, there's much less dynamic effort, and that makes life a lot less interesting.

I ask myself, have nations ever declined from a loss of moral sense rather than from physical reasons or the pressure of barbarians? I think that they have.

The appetite for power is old and irrepressible in humankind, and in its action almost always destructive.

Fateful moments tend to evoke grandeur of speech, especially in French.