“I know he’s a good general, but is he lucky?”

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.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.

We frustrate many designs against us by pretending not to see them.

The reason most people fail instead of succeed is they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment.

Napoleon Bonaparte, on finding a dog beside the body of his dead master, licking his face and howling, on a moonlit field after a battle. Napoleon was haunted by this scene until his own death.

Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets

Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action comes, stop thinking and go in.

Courage cannot be counterfeited. It is one virtue that escapes hypocrisy.

All great events hang by a single thread. The clever man takes advantage of everything, neglects nothing that may give him some added opportunity; the less clever man, by neglecting one thing, sometimes misses everything.

I don’t know if I stole your love or if it was my fate. I only know it broke my heart to find your love too late.

Obviously the most beautiful fate, the most wonderful good fortune that can happen to any human being, is to be paid for doing that which he passionately loves to do.

Fate would have no divinity if we were wise: it is we who make her a goddess and place her in heaven.

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.

I never thought I was going to be an actor. And I never really thought of myself as one. Even though I keep working. I thought I’d just do a wave of movies, and then I’d burn out. They just kept coming together.

A man’s worldly success will be in the measure that he sacrifices his confused animal thoughts.

I’m back, and you knew I was coming. On my way here I passed a cinema with the sign ‘The Mummy Returns’

The truly self-possessed, however, are free from the whims of fate and chance. Calmly, they affect their will, and with strength of character and purity of intention, they attract to their person solely positive outcomes.