I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies.

War is a lottery in which nations ought to risk nothing but small amounts.

Independence, like honor, is a rocky island, without a beach.

Victory belongs to the most persevering.

In politics nothing is immutable. Events carry within them an invincible power. The unwise destroy themselves in resistance. The skillful accept events, take strong hold of them and direct them.

Whatever misanthropists may say, ingrates and the perverse are exceptions in the human species.

A man occupied with public or other important business cannot, and need not, attend to spelling.