Only peril can bring the French together. One can't impose unity out of the blue on a country that has 265 different kinds of cheese.

I'm not at all embarrassed to be a revolutionary.

Authority doesn't work without prestige, or prestige without distance.

How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?

Whereas ordinary officers must be content with behaving correctly in front of their men, the great leaders have always carefully stage-managed their effects.

I respect only those who resist me, but I cannot tolerate them.

You'll live. Only the best get killed.