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Nothing is more destructive than the charge of artillery on a crowd.
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Ordinary men died, men of iron were taken prisoner: I only brought back with me men of bronze.
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A great people may be killed, but they cannot be intimidated.
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If you want to get on in this world make many promises, but don't keep them.
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In war, the general alone can judge of certain arrangements. It depends on him alone to conquer difficulties by his own superior talents and resolution.
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Agriculture is the soul and chief support of empires; industry produces riches and the happiness of the people; exportation represents the superabundance, and good use of both.
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It is only with prudence, sagacity, and much dexterity that great aims are accomplished, and all obstacles surmounted. Otherwise nothing is accomplished.
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A mathematician of the first rank, Laplace quickly revealed himself as only a mediocre administrator; from his first work we saw that we had been deceived. Laplace saw no question from its true point of view; he sought subtleties everywhere; had only doubtful ideas, and finally carried the spirit of the infinitely small into administration.
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Public morals are natural complement of all laws they are by themselves an entire code.
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Each state claims the right to control interests foreign to itself when those interests are such that it can control them without putting its own interests in danger. ... other powers only recognize this right of intervening in proportion as the country doing it has the power to do it.
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The only victory over love is flight.
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Generals are not to be too scrupulous.
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Love is the idler's occupation, the warrior's relaxation, and the sovereign's ruination.
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The laws of circumstance are abolished by new circumstances.
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In these days the invention of printing, and the diffusion of knowledge, render historical calumnies a little less dangerous: truth will always prevail in the long run, but how slow its progress!
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The admiral needs only one science, that of navigation. The general needs all the sciences.
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A cowardly act! What do I care about that? You may be sure that I should never fear to commit one if it were to my advantage.
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A journalist is a grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations.
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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.
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The best generals are those who have served in the artillery.
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Obedience to public authority ought not to be based either on ignorance or stupidity.
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Courage cannot be counterfeited. It is one virtue that escapes hypocrisy.
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Great battles are won with artillery.
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Being in the Tuileries is not everything: what matters is to stay here.