If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing. The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to destiny. Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever. The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos.

Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily. Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go. Until you spread your wings, you’ll have no idea how far you can fly. Imagination rules the world.

Independence, like honor, is a rocky island without a beach. Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other. Send me 300 francs; that sum will enable me to go to Paris.