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