Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.

The perfection preached in the gospels never yet built an empire. Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness, and cunning.

Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.

The future does not belong to men...

In the tumult of men and events, solitude was my temptation; now it is my friend. What other satisfaction can be sought once you have confronted History?

Difficulty attracts the man of character because it is in embracing it that he realizes himself

The cemetery is filled with indispensable men.

Men can have friends, statesmen cannot.

Difficulty attracts the characterful man, for it is by grasping it that he fulfils himself.