Men have their virtues and their vices, their heroisms and their perversities; men are neither wholly good nor wholly bad, but possess and practice all that there is of good and bad here below. Such is the general rule. Temperament, education, the accidents of life, are modifying factors. Outside of this, everything is ordered arrangement, everything is chance. Such has been my rule of expectation and it has usually brought me success.

Let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.

Tragedy warms the soul, elevates the heart, can and ought to create heroes. In this sense, perhaps, France owes a part of her great actions to Corneille.

The World is not ruined by the wickedness of the wicked, but by the weakness of the good.

The only victories which leave no regret are those which are gained over ignorance.

When your enemy is doing something wrong, do not interrupt him.

You don't reason with intellectuals. You shoot them.