The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to destiny.

In our time no one has the conception of what is great. It is up to me to show them.

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.

Military despotism represses generous sentiments, priestly tyranny stifles them.

In tragedy great men are more truly great than in history. We see them only in the crises which unfold them.

We are made weak both by idleness and distrust of ourselves. Unfortunate, indeed, is he who suffers from both. If he is a mere individual he becomes nothing; if he is a king he is lost.

From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.