Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.

Whatever shall we do in that remote spot? Well, we will write our memoirs. Work is the scythe of time.

Never depend on the multitude, full of instability and whims; always take precautions against it.

Leaders deal in hope.

A commander in chief ought to say to himself several times a day: If the enemy should appear on my front, on my right, on my left, what would I do? And if the question finds him uncertain, he is not well placed, he is not as he should be, and he should remedy it.

The hand that gives is among the hand that takes. Money has no fatherland, financiers are without patriotism and without decency, their sole object is gain.

An army which cannot be reenforced is already defeated.