All becomes easy when we follow the current of opinion; it is the ruler of the world.
The best way to keep one's word is not to give it.
Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.
A great reputation is a great noise, the more there is of it, and the further does it swell. Land, monuments, Nations, all fall, but the noise remains, and will reach to other generations.
History is the invention of historians.
Called to the throne by the voice of the people, my maxim has always been: A career open to talent without distinction of birth. It is this system of equality for which the European oligarchy detests me