There is required for the composition of a great commander not only massive common sense and reasoning power, not only imagination, but also an element of legerdemain, an original and sinister touch, which leaves the enemy puzzled as well as beaten.

Play the game for more than you can afford to lose... only then will you learn the game.

I should have liked to be asked to say what I knew. They always tried to ask what I did not know. When I would have willingly displayed my knowledge, they sought to expose my ignorance. This sort of treatment had only one result: I did not do well in examinations

A man can wear out a particular part of his mind by continually using and tiring it, just in the same way he can wear out the elbows of his coat.

If I were the first of May, I should be ashamed of myself.

It is better to be frightened now than killed hereafter

Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.