It is a strange desire, to seek power, and to loseliberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self.

The function of genius is to furnish cretins with ideas twenty year later.

The exercise of power is determined by thousands ofinteractions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, allthe more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: everyonehas a small part of himself in both.

People who fight with fire usually end up with ashes.

A state with defective laws will have defective morals.

Power doesn't corrupt people, people corrupt power.

Talkingjaw-jaw is always better than war-war.

Never answer a letter while you are angry.

Don'tclose the barn door after the horse runs away.

Beforeeverything else, getting ready is the secret to success.

Alwaysforgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much.

Thereare no secrets. There is no mystery. There is only common sense.