Very good laws may be ill timed.

I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise.

Experience constantly proves that every man who has power is impelled to abuse it; he goes on till he is pulled up by some limits. Who would say it! virtue even has need of limits.

The English are busy folk; they have no time in which to be polite.

Great commanders write their actions with simplicity; because they receive more glory from facts than from words.

Talent is a gift which God has given us secretly, and which we reveal without perceiving it.

If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman... because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French.