It is impossible to reign innocently.

If all people are free, all are equal. If they are equal, they are just.

To dare: that is the whole secret of revolutions.

Keep cool and you command everybody.

Fame is an empty noise. Let us put our ears to the centuries that have gone: we no longer hear anything; those who, at another time, shall walk among our urns, shall hear no more. The good - that is what we must pursue, whatever the price, preferring the title of a dead hero to that of a living coward.

When a people, having become free, establish wise laws, their revolution is complete... Peace and prosperity, public virtue, victory, everything is in the vigor of the laws. Outside of the laws, everything is sterile and dead.

One cannot reign innocently: the insanity of doing so is evident. Every king is a rebel and a usurper.