“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.”

What we take for vainglory, ambition, love of power and riches (or wealth), is often, indeed, a need to mask this emptiness, a need to let one’s hair down (or to live it up), to put oneself on a false scent or trail. (de se donner le change”, Fr.)

See that unfortunate soldier who is falling hurt to death (“tombe blessé à…”, Fr.) on the battlefield; he learns that his folks have vanquished and dies happy.

Deep down, they are also related (or connected) among them; that they consider (or not) themselves as strangers, this just depends on the feeling (or sensation) that dictate their relationships.

A swindler (or crook) of higher condition is more blameworthy than a vulgar scoundrel.

The divine element manifests itself (or show up) in man as well by his aptitude for science, than by his aptitude for virtue.

Besides the progress of industry and technique, we see a growing discontent among the masses; we see, besides the expansion (“expansion,”, Fr.) of instruction, distrust and hatred expanding among nations (“s’étendre la méfiance et la haine entre,” Fr.).

(“Le concept de l’absolu, d’où découlent, dans le domaine moral, les lois ou normes morales, constitue, le principe d’identité, qui est la loi fondamentale de la pensée; il en découle les normes logiques qui régissent la pensée dans le domaine de la science.”)

Outward, thanks to the knowledge of physical laws, man could subdue (or subjugate…) nature, but inwardly, he remained a slave to it.

It is not the first time that men sell their birth right for a dish of lentils, and thus disown (or repudiate or deny) the best of thmeselves.

The first principle from which stems the moral of about all people at all time; it is summarized in this precept: Love thy neighbour as thyself, and: do as you would be done by.

Arbitrariness and true liberty are as distinct from each other that the empirical nature is distinct from the higher nature of man.

The distinction between right and wrong (“la distinction du bien et du mal”, Fr.), is nothing else than their unyielding (or implacable) opposition.

An intelligent eveil-doer, having benefited from a higher education, represent a more saddening phenomenon (“phénomène”, Fr.) than an unfortune illiterate fellow having commited an offence.

Religion is not simply a theory, it is a higher life, of which morality is an integral part – a life devoted to the worship of the good and the true, for God, the absolute, is the supreme source of all perfection”

In the actual state of social relationships, the forms (“formes”, Fr.) of politeness are necessary as a subsitute to benevolence.

For if we do not take it upon ourselves to remedy in time to the moral colapse (or bankruptcy) that already threaten, the whole civilisation will risks to disappear.

We don’t discuss this issue [ chemical weapons ] in public because we never said that we have it, and we never said that we don’t have it. It’s a Syrian issue ; it’s a military issue we never discuss in public with anyone.

The unexpected cannot guarantee success, but it guarantees the best chance of success.

If you find your opponent in a strong position costly to force, you should leave him a line of retreat as the quickest way of loosening his resistance. It should, equally, be a principle of policy, especially in war, to provide your opponent with a ladder by which he can climb down.

You in Lebanon, your power is no match to Israel. Israel, militarily, is more powerful than you and maybe it is more powerful than all the Arab countries, or most of them.

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.