“The military predominace of Sparte. This example proves that man can everything on themselves when they want it (“peuvent tout sur eux-mêmes quand ils le veulent”, Fr.); therefore it would only be a question of making them will the good.”

In their country, two fellow coutrymen whose paths berely cross (or see each only only briefly) with inferrence, would effusively rush themselves up (or throw themselves) into each other arms if they would happen to meet in a desert, among Cannibles.

Nothing that rest on some contradictory basis shall succeed or last in the long run (“ne saurait réussir ou durer, à la longue”, Fr.); all that involve (or imply…) a contradiction is fatally destined, early or late, to disintegrate and disappear.

A good man (“un homme de bien”, Fr.) never wholly perishes, the best part of his being outlives (or survives) in eternity.

It must be all the same to the citizens (“ressortissants”, Fr.) of a country that their governing (those in power) speak such language or such other (“telle langue ou telle autre”, Fr.).

The most sacred duty, the supreme and urgent work, is to deliver humanity from the malediction of Cain – fratricidal war.

Short-sighted (à courte vue”, Fr.) interests, which, when all is said and done, are also prejudicial (or detrimental, or harmful) to those very same that pursue them?

If the present civilisation does not acquire some stable moral fondations (“bases morales stables”, Fr.), its existence will hardly be more assured than that of the civilisations that have preceeded it, and which have fallen (or collapse, or failed).

A man, engaged in his simple reflections in everyday life, will comprehend neither the possibility, nor the benefits of self-sacrifice, but, when given (“qu’on lui donne”, Fr.) a great cause to defend, and he will find only natural to sacrifice oneself for it.

The realization of justice is, in the actual state of things, a matter of life or death for society and for civilisation itself.

Experience shows that what great role pratice and experience play in education; pratice, the prolonged exercice lead to habit: exemple suggests imitation.

The fact that men have a same origin and live in the same universe means that they are representatives of a same unity.

Moral was a principle of inner life, whereas in our days, most of the time one is content to adhere to an official moral, that we recognize in theory, but that one does not care to put into practice.

As long as men will not be freed from their errors and delusions, humanity will not be able to go towards (“marcher vers”, Fr.) the accomplishment of its true destinies.

Deep down, everything boils down (“au fond tout se ramène”, Fr.) to the following simple question; Do we really want justice and the realization in this world of higher principles, or else do we want to serve selfish.

We can, following the exemple of Kant, consider the moral development and improvement of men, as the supreme goal of human evolution.

The more his character, by rising above material contingencies, widen, become free and independent.

It is only to clear from history that states rarely keep faith with each other, save in so far (and so long) as their promises seem to them to combine with their interests.

I am an opponent of war and of war preparations and an opponent of universal military training and conscription; but entirely apart from that issue, I hold that segregation in any part of the body politic is an act of slavery and an act of war.

[The] aim is not so much to seek battle as to seek a strategic situation so advantageous that if it does not of itself produce the decision, its continuation by a battle is sure to achieve this. In other words, dislocation is the aim of strategy.

At the end of the day…if your army won’t fight, it’s because they don’t trust their incompetent, corrupt generals, they don’t trust each other. This is an enduring civil war between the Shia, the Sunni, and the Kurds.

Natural hazards, however formidable, are inherently less dangerous and less uncertain than fighting hazards. All conditions are more calculable, all obstacles more surmountable than those of human resistance.

The most effective indirect approach is one that lures or startles the opponent into a false move – so that, as in ju-jitsu, his own effort is turned into the lever of his overthrow.

As has happened so often in history, victory had bred a complacency and fostered an orthodoxy which led to defeat in the next war.

The only thing harder than getting a new idea into the military mind is to get an old one out.