The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.

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

Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.

The public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow.

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

When one wants to change manners and customs, one should not do so by changing the laws.

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.