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