To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.
Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.
It requires more courage to suffer than to die.
Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.
The best way to keep one's word is not to give it.
The great proof of madness is the disproportion of one's designs to one's means.
He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.
When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.
Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
History is a set of lies agreed upon.
The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.
The best cure for the body is a quiet mind.
Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
The human race is governed by its imagination.
One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority.
It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.
Women are nothing but machines for producing children.
Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows.
What is history but a fable agreed upon?
There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time.
In politics stupidity is not a handicap.
History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.
A leader is a dealer in hope.
Men take only their needs into consideration - never their abilities.
Respect the burden.
One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent.
All religions have been made by men.
A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.
Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.
Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals.
The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know.
Imagination rules the world.
I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue courage is only the second virtue.
Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.
If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.
The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.
The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.
Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.
Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.
In politics... never retreat, never retract... never admit a mistake.