"The art of war consists in being always able, even with an inferior army, to have stronger forces than the enemy at the point of attack or the point which is attacked."

"The secret of great battles consists in knowing how to deploy and concentrate at the right time."

"In war, theory is all right so far as general principles are concerned; but in reducing general principles to practice there will always be danger. Theory and practice are the axis about which the sphere of accomplishment revolves."

"He who cannot look over a battlefield with a dry eye, causes the death of many men uselessly."

"There is only one favorable moment in war; talent consists in knowing how to seize it."

"War is a serious game in which a man risks his reputation, his troops, and his country. A sensible man will search himself to know whether or not he is fitted for the trade."

"There is a joy in danger."

"In a battle, as in a siege, the art consists in concentrating very heavy fire on a particular point. The line of battle once established, the one who has the ability to concentrate an unlooked for mass of artillery suddenly and unexpectedly on one of these points is sure to carry the day."

"Never march by flank in front of an army in position. This principle is absolute."

"An army ought to be ready every moment to offer all the resistance of which it is capable."

"Changing from the defensive to the offensive, is one of the most delicate operations in war."

"At the beginning of a campaign it is important to consider whether or not to move forward; but when one has taken the offensive it is necessary to maintain it to the last extremity. However skilfully effected a retreat may be, it always lessens the morale of an army, since in losing the chances of success, they are remitted to the enemy. A retreat, moreover, costs much more in men and materials than the bloodiest engagements, with this difference, also, that in a battle the enemy loses practically as much as you do; while in a retreat you lose and he does not."

"The moment of greatest peril is the moment of victory."

"A commander in chief ought to say to himself several times a day: If the enemy should appear on my front, on my right, on my left, what would I do? And if the question finds him uncertain, he is not well placed, he is not as he should be, and he should remedy it."

"An army which cannot be reenforced is already defeated."

"The military principles of Caesar were those of Hannibal, and those of Hannibal were those of Alexander — to hold his forces in hand, not to be vulnerable at any point, to throw all his forces with rapidity on any given point."

"It is often in the audacity, in the steadfastness, of the general that the safety and the conservation of his men is found."

"Unhappy the general who comes on the field of battle with a system."

"A general must be a charlatan."

"Our credulity is a part of the imperfection of our natures. It is inherent in us to desire to generalize, when we ought, on the contrary, to guard ourselves very carefully from this tendency."

"Man loves the marvelous. It has an irresistible charm for him. He is always ready to leave that with which he is familiar to pursue vain inventions. He lends himself to his own deception."

"The populace judges of the power of God by the power of the priests."

"You cannot drag a man's conscience before any tribunal, and no one is answerable for his religious opinions to any power on earth."

"Policemen and prisons ought never to be the means used to bring men back to the practice of religion."

"Fanaticism must be put to sleep before it can be eradicated."

"Conscience is the most sacred thing among men. Every man has within him a still small voice, which tells him that nothing on earth can oblige him to believe that which he does not believe. The worst of all tyrannies is that which obliges eighteen-twentieths of a nation to embrace a religion contrary to their beliefs, under penalty of being denied their rights as citizens and of owning property, which, in effect, is the same thing as being without a country."

"The religious zeal which animates priests, leads them to undertake labors and to brave perils which would be far beyond the powers of one in secular employment."

"Charity and alms are recommended in every chapter of the Koran as being the most acceptable services, both to God and the Prophet."

"Jesus Christ was the greatest republican."

"The existence of God is attested by everything that appeals to our imagination. And if our eye cannot reach Him it is because He has not permitted our intelligence to go so far."

"Aristocracy is the spirit of the Old Testament, democracy of the New."

"In practical administration, experience is everything."

"Laws which are consistent in theory often prove chaotic in practice."

"The division of labor, which has brought such perfection in mechanical industries, is altogether fatal when applied to productions of the mind. All work of the mind is superior in proportion as the mind that produces it is universal."

"Dante has not deigned to take his inspiration from any other. He has wished to be himself, himself alone; in a word, to create. He has occupied a vast space, and has filled it with the superiority of a sublime mind. He is diverse, strong, and gracious. He has imagination, warmth, and enthusiasm. He makes his reader tremble, shed tears, feel the thrill of honor in a way that is the height of art. Severe and menacing, he has terrible imprecations for crime, scourgings for vice, sorrow for misfortune. As a citizen, affected by the laws of the republic, he thunders against its oppressors, but he is always ready to excuse his native city, Florence is ever to him his sweet, beloved country, dear to his heart. I am envious for my dear France, that she has never produced a rival to Dante; that this Colossus has not had his equal among us. No, there is no reputation which can be compared to his."

"It must be recognized that the real truths of history are hard to discover. Happily, for the most part, they are rather matters of curiosity than of real importance."

"All men of genius, and all those who have gained rank in the republic of letters, are brothers, whatever may be the land of their nativity."

"A book in which there were no lies would be a curiosity."

"Peace ought to be the result of a system well considered, founded on the true interests of the different countries, honorable to each, and ought not to be either a capitulation or the result of a threat."

"To listen to the interests of all, marks an ordinary government; to foresee them, marks a great government."

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

"Democracy may become frenzied, but it has feelings and can be moved. As for aristocracy, it is always cold and never forgives."

"Parties weaken themselves by their fear of capable men."

"It is rare that a legislature reasons. It is too quickly impassioned."

"One can lead a nation only by helping it see a bright outlook. A leader is a dealer in hope."

"Some revolutions are inevitable. There are moral eruptions, just as the outbreak of volcanoes are physical eruptions. When the chemical combinations which produce them are complete, the volcanic eruptions burst forth, just as revolutions do when the moral factors are in the right state. In order to foresee them the trend of ideas must be understandingly observed."

"The laws of circumstance are abolished by new circumstances."

"Obedience to public authority ought not to be based either on ignorance or stupidity."

"He was always ready to pose the truly awkward dilemmas, and time and again he swam against the stream. ... Few figures in history can match his persistent intellectual courage. ... He became one of the chief glories of our nation and our people and I defy anyone who loves the English language and the English heritage to think of him without a glow of patriotism."

"I used generally to have tea with in his [Russell's] rooms in Trinity when I went to Cambridge. A more brilliant intellect I never met, but he was much more approachable than McTaggart had been at first; and he had a peculiar charm of his own. His writings were most pessimistic, but he himself always appeared in the best of spirits—a feature which I had also noticed in pessimists on frontier expeditions. Apparently the way really to enjoy oneself is to be full of dark forebodings and expect the worst; then if the worst actually happens it is only what one had expected, and if anything less than the worst occurs one can be in uproarious good-humour."