Mankind are in the end always governed by superiority of intellectual faculties, and none are more sensible of this than the military profession. When, on my return from Italy, I assumed the dress of the Institute, and associated with men of science, I knew what I was doing: I was sure of not being misunderstood by the lowest drummer boy in the army.

The secret of great battles consists in knowing how to deploy and concentrate at the right time.

My star was fading, I felt the reins slipping out of my grasp, and could do nothing to stop it.

Ordinarily men exercise their memory much more than their judgment.

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

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.

I treat policies like war. I hoodwink one flank so as to trounce the other. In my family we kneel only to God.