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

“Conquests will come and go but Delambre's work will endure.”

“The great mass of society are far from being depraved; for if a large majority were criminal or inclined to break the laws, where would the force or power be to prevent or constrain them? And herein is the real blessing of civilization, because this happy result has its origin in her bosom, growing out of her very nature.”

“You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her decks? I have no time for such nonsense.”

“One must indeed be ignorant of the methods of genius to suppose that it allows itself to be cramped by forms. Forms are for mediocrity, and it is fortunate that mediocrity can act only according to routine. Ability takes its flight unhindered.”

“I make my battle plans from the spirit of my sleeping soldiers”

“It is a mistake, too, to say that the face is the mirror of the soul. The truth is, men are very hard to know, and yet, not to be deceived, we must judge them by their present actions, but for the present only.”