Man loves the marvelous. It has an irresistible charm for him. He is always ready to leave that with which he is familiar to pursue vain inventions. He lends himself to his own deception.

Power is what they like - it is the greatest of all aphrodisiacs.

They wanted me to be a Washington.

To be believed make the truth unbelievable.

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

The French complain of everything, and always.

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.