Timid and cowardly soldiers cause the loss of a nation's independence; but pusillanimous magistrates destroy the empire of the laws, the rights of the throne, and even social order itself.

All systems of morality are fine. The gospel alone has exhibited a complete assemblage of the principles of morality, divested of all absurdity. It is not composed, like your creed, of a few common-place sentences put into bad verse. Do you wish to see that which is really sublime? Repeat the Lord's Prayer.

Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.

He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.

How many seemingly impossible things have been accomplished by resolute men because they had to do, or die?

In politics nothing is immutable. Events carry within them an invincible power. The unwise destroy themselves in resistance. The skillful accept events, take strong hold of them and direct them.

When I was happy I thought I knew men, but it was fated that I should know them in misfortune only.