To listen to the interests of all marks an ordinary government; to foresee them marks a great government.

I made all my generals out of mud.

We are made weak both by idleness and distrust of ourselves. Unfortunate, indeed, is he who suffers from both. If he is a mere individual he becomes nothing; if he is a king he is lost.

You cannot treat with all the world at once.

When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

Rashness succeeds often, still more often fails.

Every French soldier carriers a marshal's baton in his knapsack.