Posterity alone rightly judges kings. Posterity alone has the right to accord or withhold honors.

Timid and cowardly soldiers cause the loss of a nation's independence; but pusillanimous magistrates destroy the empire of the laws, the rights of the throne, and even social order itself.

If you know a country's geography, you can understand and predict its foreign policy.

The advance and perfecting of mathematics are closely joined to the prosperity of the nation.

Music, of all the liberal arts, has the greatest influence over the passions, and it is that to which the legislator ought to give the greatest encouragement.

It is rare that a legislature reasons. It is too quickly impassioned.

There is only one thing in this world, and that is to keep acquiring money and more money, power and more power. All the rest is meaningless.