In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.

One can unite the French only under the threat of danger. One cannot simply bring together a nation that produces 265 kinds of cheese.

The perfection preached in the gospels never yet built an empire. Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness, and cunning.

The cemetery is filled with indispensable men.

What do you take me for, an idiot?

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.

Leaders of men are later remembered less for the usefulness of what they have achieved than for the sweep of their endeavors.