To have common glories in the past, a common will in the present; to have done great things together, to will to do the like again, — such are the essential conditions for the making of a people.

A nation has a soul, a spiritual principle. One is in the past, the other in the present. One is the possession of a rich legacy of memories; the other is the desire to live together and to value the common heritage.

When people complain of life, it is almost always because they have asked impossible things of it.

No idea can succeed except at the expense of sacrifice; no one ever escapes without enduring strain from the struggle of life.

The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with truths for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life.

Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation.

To conceive the good, in fact, is not sufficient; it must be made to succeed among men. To accomplish this less pure paths must be followed.