If you get to thinking you're a person of some influence,try ordering somebody else's dog around.

Civilization has made the peasantry its pack animal.

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.

We areall faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised asimpossible situations.

Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, menof power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.

What wesee depends mainly on what we look for.

Keep a secret; its you slave. Tell it, and it's your master.

EDUCATION BEGINS WITH LIFE.

I hold it to be a proof of great prudence for men toabstain from threats and insulting words toward an enemy, for neither ...diminishes the strength of the enemy; but the one makes him more cautious,and the other increases his hatred of you and makes him

Ialways cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think,well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a singlepolitical argument left.

Conflictis the gadfly of thought. It stirs us to observation and memory. Itinstigates to invention. It shocks us out of sheeplikepassivity, and sets us at noting and contriving.

Pessimism, when you get used to it, is just as agreeable as optimism.