Society cannot exist without inequality of fortunes and the inequality of fortunes could not subsist without religion. Whenever a half-starved person is near another who is glutted, it is impossible to reconcile the difference if there is not an authority who tells him to.

Republican despotism is more fertile in acts of tyranny, because everyone has a hand in it.

Our credulity is a part of the imperfection of our natures. It is inherent in us to desire to generalize, when we ought, on the contrary, to guard ourselves very carefully from this tendency.

The world soffers a lot. Not because the violence of bad people. But because of the silence of the good people.

Few really believe. The most only believe that they believe or even make believe.

Champagne! In victory, one deserves it; in defeat one needs it.

I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies.