“Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.”

“In our time no one has the conception of what is great. It is up to me to show them.”

“What is a throne? — a bit of wood gilded and covered in velvet. I am the state— I alone am here the representative of the people. Even if I had done wrong you should not have reproached me in public—people wash their dirty linen at home. France has more need of me than I of France.”

“Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.”

“Of all the peoples of Europe, Spaniards disgust me the least.”

“Men are Moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.”

“If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.”