One does not arrest Voltaire.

I have heard your views. They do not harmonize with mine. The decision is taken unanimously.

I cannot prevent the French from being French

How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?

Nothing more enhances authority than silence. It is the crowning virtue of the strong, the refuge of the weak, the modesty of the proud, the pride of the humble, the prudence of the wise, and the sense of fools. To speak is to . . . dissipate one's strength; whereas what action demands is concentration. Silence is a necessary preliminary to the ordering of one's thoughts.

Old age is a shipwreck.

Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.