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