War is in truth a disease in which the juices that serve health and maintenance are used for the sole purpose of nourishing something foreign, something at odds with nature.

We are never further from what we wish than when we believe that we have what we wished for.

We eagerly get hold of a law that serves as a weapon to our passions.

We cannot and must not get rid of nor deny our characteristics. But we can give them shape and direction.

two souls, alas, are housed within my breast, and each will wrestle for the mastery there.

A man's shortcomings are taken from his epoch; his virtues and greatness belong to himself.

We gladly put antiquity above our age but not posterity. Only a father doesn't begrudge his son's talent.