Called to the throne by the voice of the people, my maxim has always been: A career open to talent without distinction of birth. It is this system of equality for which the European oligarchy detests me

A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.

Do you know what astonished me the most in this world? The inability of force to create anything.

There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.

I hope before long to press you in my arms and shall shower on you a million burning kisses as under the Equator.

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.

You don't govern men who don't have religion, you shoot them.