It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.

Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.

Honor sets all the parts of the body politic in motion, and by its very action connects them; thus each individual advances the public good, while he only thinks of promoting his own interest.

Ever since the invention of gunpowder.. I continually tremble lest men should, in the end, uncover some secret which would provide a short way of abolishing mankind, of annihilating peoples and nations in their entirety.

Liberty itself has appeared intolerable to those nations who have not been accustomed to enjoy it.

Those who have few affairs to attend to are great speakers. The less men think, the more they talk.

Power should be a check on power.