"Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide."

"There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous."

"With audacity one can undertake anything, but not do everything."

"If you want a thing done well, do it yourself."

"If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing."

"I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up."

"One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority."

"Ability is nothing without opportunity."

"In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage."

"A leader is a dealer in hope."

"The great proof of madness is the disproportion of one's designs to one's means."

"Water, air, and cleanness are the chief articles in my pharmacy."

"One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent."

"Let the path be open to talent."

"From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us."

"Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult."

"Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows."

"Circumstances - what are circumstances? I make circumstances."

"Women are nothing but machines for producing children."

"Throw off your worries when you throw off your clothes at night."

"There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit."

"Large legislative bodies resolve themselves into coteries, and coteries into jealousies."

"Greatness be nothing unless it be lasting."

"Great people are meteors designed to burn so that the earth may be lighted."

"Music, of all the liberal arts, has the greatest influence over the passions, and it is that to which the legislator ought to give the greatest encouragement"

"Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress."

"I made all my generals out of mud."

"The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind."

"Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me."

"The only conquests which are permanent and leave no regrets are our conquests over ourselves."

"The conscience is the sacred haven of the liberty of man."

"A Constitution should be short and obscure"

"He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat."

"Valor is a gift. Those having it never know for sure whether they have it till the test comes. And those having it in one test never know for sure if they will have it when the next test comes."

"An army marches on its stomach."

"Every private in the French army carries a Field Marshall wand in his knapsack."

"The bed has become a place of luxury to me! I would not exchange it for all the thrones in the world"

"England is a nation of shopkeepers"

"I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle this matter by lunch time."

"The greatest general is he who makes the fewest mistakes."

"The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies."

"When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary."

"Fashion condemns us to many follies; the greatest is to make ourselves its slave"

"The best cure for the body is a quiet mind."

"A throne is only a bench covered with velvet."

"Someone says, "Boys will be boys"; he forgot to add, "Boys will be men"

"Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues."

"There are only two forces that unite men - fear and interest."

"Imagination rules the world."

"Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals"