“A revolution is an idea, taken up by bayonets.”

It’s the unconquerable soul of man, and not the nature of the weapon he uses, that ensures victory

We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.

It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.

Orders and decorations are necessary in order to dazzle the people.

A woman laughing is a woman conquered.

Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him.

One is more certain to influence men, to produce more effect on them, by absurdities than by sensible ideas.

If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.

If we could read the past histories of all our enemies we would disregard all hostility for them.

I saw the crown of France laying on the ground, so I picked it up with my sword.

Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.

A true man hates no one.

Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.

China is a sleeping giant; let him sleep, for if he wakes, he will shake the World.

He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.

Give me enough medals and I’ll win you any war

Science fiction is always a vehicle for ideas. It’s the form which allows either movies or books to be an exploration of how we should live.

It’s scary being in a room with producers and saying, ‘Here’s my idea,’ when I’m scared to get shot down.

The man who cannot occasionally imagine events and conditions of existence that are contrary to the causal principle as he knows it will never enrich his science by the addition of a new idea.

The power to destroy the world by the use of nuclear weapons is a power that cannot be used – we cannot accept the idea of such monstrous immorality.

I generally have a real strong idea or a strong punchline, and I just try to get to it by rambling around, as I don’t like to memorize words.

If you want to have good ideas you must have many ideas. Most of them will be wrong, and what you have to learn is which ones to throw away.

You must be ready to give up even the most attractive ideas when experiment shows them to be wrong.

I have dreamed in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind.