With audacity one can undertake anything, but not do everything.
Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.
Throw off your worries when you throw off your clothes at night.
I am the successor, not of Louis XVI, but of Charlemagne.
The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to destiny.
Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.
Riches do not consist in the possession of treasures, but in the use made of them.
In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.
The word impossible is not in my dictionary.
If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.
Forethought we may have, undoubtedly, but not foresight.
Victory belongs to the most persevering.
From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.
Ability is nothing without opportunity.
France has more need of me than I have need of France.
The act of policing is, in order to punish less often, to punish more severely.
There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
A true man hates no one.
Ambition never is in a greater hurry that I; it merely keeps pace with circumstances and with my general way of thinking.
Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.
The army is the true nobility of our country.
