A society without religion is like a vessel without compass.

Audacity succeeds as often as it fails; in life it has an even chance.

France will always be a great nation.

To write history one must be more than a man, since the author who holds the pen of this great justiciary must be free from all preoccupation of interest or vanity.

If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.

In a battle, as in a siege, the art consists in concentrating very heavy fire on a particular point. The line of battle once established, the one who has the ability to concentrate an unlooked for mass of artillery suddenly and unexpectedly on one of these points is sure to carry the day.

I cannot believe there is a god who punishes and rewards, for I see honest folk unlucky, and rogues unlucky.