"Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows."

"A leader is a dealer in hope."

"Men of learning in Milan have not enjoyed proper respect. They hid themselves in their laboratories and thought themselves lucky if . . . priests left them alone. All is changed today. Thought in Italy is free. Inquisition, intolerance, despots have vanished. I invite scholars to meet and propose what must be done to give science and the arts a new flowering."

"History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon."

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

"Women are nothing but machines for producing children."

"Men of great ambition have sought happiness . . . and have found fame."

"A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights."

"Throw off your worries when you throw off your clothes at night."

"As for moral courage, it is very rare, he said, to find that kind found at 2 o'clock in the morning; that is to say, courage in the face of the unexpected."

"The human race is governed by its imagination."

"Medicines are only fit for old people."

"Forethought we may have, undoubtedly, but not foresight."

"I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies."

"In politics stupidity is not a handicap."

"Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him."

"One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority."

"The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man."

"With audacity one can undertake anything."

"In politics... never retreat, never retract... never admit a mistake."

"A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon."

"The act of policing is, in order to punish less often, to punish more severely."

"Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest."

"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."

"Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets."

"Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in."

"Water, air, and cleanness are the chief articles in my pharmacy."

"The art of governing consists in not letting men grow old in their jobs."

"If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god."

"Glory is fleeting but obscurity is forever."

"England is a nation of shopkeepers."

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

"The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies."

"The best way to keep one's word is not to give it."

"The word impossible is not in my dictionary."

"As to moral courage I have very rarely met with the two o'clock in the morning kind. I mean unprepared courage that which is necessary on an unexpected occasion and which in spite of the most unforeseen events leaves full freedom of judgement and decision."

"Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress."

"All celebrated people lose dignity on a close view."

"Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment."

"Imagination governs the world."

"When soldiers have been baptized in the fire of a battle-field, they have all one rank in my eyes."

"There are two levers for moving men - interest and fear."

"An army marches on its stomach."

"The best cure for the body is a quiet mind."

"Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide."

"Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them."

"Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy."

"He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander."

"A woman laughing is a woman conquered."

"If you want a thing done well, do it yourself."