Fain would I glide down a gentle river, but I am carried away by a torrent.

We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our school-masters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first two teach us.

The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country.

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.

The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.

In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state.

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