I base my calculation on the expectation that luck will be against me.

Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.

Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.

The merit of Mahomet is that he founded a religion without an inferno.

Lies circle the earth while Truth is still trying to put on its shoes.

Unite for the public safety, if you would remain an independent nation.

A people which is able to say everything becomes able to do everything.

How many really capable men are children more than once during the day!

The best way to make every one poor is to insist on equality of wealth.

Being in the Tuileries is not everything: what matters is to stay here.

Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.

You think you are too intelligent to believe in God. I am not like you.

In war there is but one favorable moment; the great art is to seize it!

Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

In war, as in prostitution, amateurs are often better than professionals.

A leader has the right to be beaten, but never the right to be surprised.

Courage cannot be counterfeited. It is one virtue that escapes hypocrisy.

France needs nothing so much to promote her regeneration as good mothers.

To make yourself understood to people, one must first speak to their eyes

War is a lottery in which nations ought to risk nothing but small amounts.

It is not set speeches at the moment of battle that render soldiers brave.

The art of the police is not to see what it is useless that it should see.

Victory is not always winning the battle...but rising every time you fall.

In a great nation, the majority are incapable of judging wisely of things.

The fate of a Nation may sometimes depend upon the position of a fortress.

If I were to give liberty to the press, my power could not last three days.

Fools have a great advantage over the wise; they are always self-satisfied.

In war as in love, to bring matters to a close, you must get close together.

I may have had many projects, but I never was free to carry out any of them.

If you want to get on in this world make many promises, but don't keep them.

Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.

The public spirit is in the hands of the man who knows how to make use of it.

A man is not dependent upon his fellow creature, when he does not fear death.

To have a right estimate of a man's character, we must see him in misfortune.

A Government protected by foreigners will never be accepted by a free people.

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.

The great art of governing consists in not letting men grow old in their jobs.

Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows.

A soul you say? Give my pocketwatch to a savage and he'll think it has a soul.

The most constant, the most powerful, and the most generous of all my enemies.

If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.

Order marches with weighty and measured strides. Disorder is always in a hurry.

Every private in the French army carries a Field Marshall wand in his knapsack.

The Concordat is not the victory of any one party but the consolidation of all.

The act of policing is, in order to punish less often, to punish more severely.

Against attempts on my life, I trust in my luck, my good genius, and my guards.

The stupid speak of the past, the wise of the present, and fools of the future.

In my youth I, too, entertained some illusions; but I soon recovered from them.

Fashion condemns us to many follies, the greatest is to make oneself its slave.

In politics nothing is immutable. Events carry within them an invincible power.

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