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The worse the man, the better the soldier.
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To write history one must be more than a man, since the author who holds the pen of this great justiciary must be free from all preoccupation of interest or vanity.
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Occupation is the scythe of time.
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Incidents should not govern policy; but, policy incidents.
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To negotiate is not to do as one likes.
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A people which is able to say everything becomes able to do everything.
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It should not be believed that a march of three or four days in the wrong direction can be corrected by a countermarch. As a rule, this is to make two mistakes instead of one.
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Lack is more in means, than in principles.
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What I have done up to this is nothing. I am only at the beginning of the course I must run. Do you imagine that I triumph in Italy in order to aggrandise the pack of lawyers who form the Directory, and men like Carnot and Barras? What an idea!
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A king is sometimes obliged to commit crimes; but they are the crimes of his position.
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There are only two forces that unite men - fear and interest. All great revolutions originate in fear, for the play of interests does not lead to accomplishment.
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I haven't known 6 days of happiness in my life.
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The implements to him who can handle them.
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Opportunities? I make opportunities.
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Men, in general, are but great children.
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I like honest men of all colors.
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Power is what they like - it is the greatest of all aphrodisiacs.
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Posterity alone rightly judges kings. Posterity alone has the right to accord or withhold honors.
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The great difficulty with politics is, that there are no established principles.
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Be successful! I judge men only by the results of their actions.
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All systems of morality are fine. The gospel alone has exhibited a complete assemblage of the principles of morality, divested of all absurdity. It is not composed, like your creed, of a few common-place sentences put into bad verse. Do you wish to see that which is really sublime? Repeat the Lord's Prayer.
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Those who are free from common prejudices acquire others.
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Over-preparation is the foe of inspiration.
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After me, the Revolution - or, rather the ideas which formed it - will resume their course. It will be like a book from which the marker is removed, and one starts to read again at the page where one left off.