A leader is a dealer in hope.

It is in times of difficulty that great nations like great men display the whole energy of their character and become an object of admiration to posterity.

History is a myth that men agree to believe.

People take England on trust, and repeat that Shakespeare is the greatest of all authors. I have read him: there is nothing that compares Racine or Corneille: his plays are unreadable, pitiful.

There are so many laws that no one is safe from hanging.

When you have an enemy in your power, deprive him of the means of ever injuring you.

Morality has nothing to do with such a man as I am.