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

The laws of circumstance are abolished by new circumstances.

To understand the man you have to know what was happening in the world when he was twenty.

Conquests will come and go but Delambre’s work will endure.

An army marches on its stomach.

I have seen only you, I have admired only you, I desire only You

The best cure for the body is a quiet mind

The extent of your consciousness is limited only by your ability to love and to embrace with your love the space around you, and all it contains.

If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.

War is the business of barbarians.

It is only by prudence, wisdom, and dexterity, that great ends are attained and obstacles overcome. Without these qualities nothing succeeds.

As a rule it is circumstances that make men.

There shall be no Alps.

Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.

Men are Moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.

If the art of war were nothing but the art of avoiding risks, glory would become the prey of mediocre minds, I have made all the calculations; fate will do the rest.

Never tell your enemy he is doing the wrong thing.

A concept is a brick. It can be used to build a courthouse of reason. Or it can be thrown through the window.

By crushing individuals, they cannot kill ideas.

If you are possessed by an idea, you find it expressed everywhere, you even smell it.

People have an idea that one is in control of a career, a lot more than you really are. You can engineer things to an extent. But you are at the mercy of what comes in across the desk.

Any idea of a United India could never have worked and in my judgment it would have led us to terrific disaster.

A cat’s idea of a ‘good time’ is to kill something.

The real democratic American idea is, not that every man shall be on a level with every other man, but that every man shall have liberty to be what God made him, without hindrance.

For years, I just did not like this idea of God, church.