Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

When I consider the narrow limits within which our active and inquiring faculties are confined; when I see how all our energies are wasted in providing for mere necessities, which again have no further end than to prolong a wretched existence; and then that all our satisfaction concerning certain subjects of investigation ends in nothing better than a passive resignation... when I consider all this... I am silent.

The art of governing is a great metier, requiring the whole man, and it is therefore not well for a ruler to have too strong tendencies for other affairs.

Napoleon for the sake of a good name broke in pieces half the world.

He who moves not forward, goes backward.

It is said that no man is a hero to his valet. That is because a hero can be recognized only by a hero.

There is no remedy but love for the great superiority of others