A nation may lose its liberties in a day and not miss them in a century

To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.

There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.

An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.

The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.

The less men think, the more they talk.

False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared.

Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.

An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.

Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones.

There should be weeping at a man's birth, not at his death.

You will never know all there is to know. You will learn until your final days. Then you will inspire someone else. This is what an artist does.

Failure is our greatest teacherBlame blinds us to her lessons

To cry at will is not an easy accomplishment.

Fear or stupidity has always been the basis of most human actions.

The world is not the illusion. It's you who are the illusion.

A woman whose face looked as if it had been made of sugar and someone had licked it.

Doing is the great thing, for if people resolutely do what is right, they come in time to like doing it.

My whole career has been fulfilling my childhood fantasies, playing characters that are larger than life, getting to play a knight, an elf, a prince, and a soldier.

Here's the thing: The book that will most change your life is the book you write.

I'm most honest about writing when I'm talking to family or friends, not to newspapers.