He who defends everything defends nothing.

Great things are achieved only when we take great risks.

All religions must be tolerated ... every man must go to heaven in his own way. [Die Religionen müssen alle toleriert werden ... denn hier muss ein jeder nach seiner Fasson selig werden.]

The more I see of men, the better I like my dog.

Diplomacy without military might is like music without instruments.

Great advantage is drawn from knowledge of your adversary, and when you know the measure of his intelligence and character, you can use it to play on his weakness.

Every man has a wild beast within him.

A man, who can, in cold blood, hunt and torture a poor, innocent animal, cannot feel much compassion for the distress of his own species.

The greatest and noblest pleasure which we have in this world is to discover new truths, and the next is to shake off old prejudices.

No government can exist without taxation. The money must necessarily be levied on the people; and the grand art consists of levying so as not to oppress.

Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer, and the King does not believe that coffee-drinking soldiers can be relied upon to endure hardships in case of another war.

We are here and it is now. The way I see it is, after that, everything tends towards guesswork.

Linux is a superbly polished copy of an antique - shinier than the original, perhaps, but still defined by it.

The idea that the EU is somehow the guarantor of peace on the continent - that is in itself rash, in my view, and risks undermining the vital role of Nato.

If I don't believe it, then they don't need me on the court. I've just got to believe that in my heart.

I've never done anything half-heartedly; it's a disservice to me and the audience if I do it half-heartedly.

He who does not see the angels and devils in the beauty and malice of life will be far removed from knowledge, and his spirit will be empty of affection.

You can't fake it. Bad writing is a gift.

Now we are not merely to stick knowledge on to the soul: we must incorporate it into her; the soul should not be sprinkled with knowledge but steeped in it.

The beginner's mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless.

To have twenty lovers in one year is easy. To have one lover for twenty years is difficult.