Quotes from WILLIAM BOLITHO

He fought with Augustus and Peter, not with Russia or Poland. He aimed at full apologies, not conquests.

But the better the training, the greater and more detailed the preparation, the more men are at the mercy of the impossible.

All these outposts were broken in,and that which in other histories would have counted as three victories did not delay the progress of Charles for one hour

In its greatest moments, memory seems to desert human beings ; only tiny ordinary events leave clear detailed trace. Probably none at the pitch of exaltation which Charles and his men had reached had any remembrance of what happened; we can be supermen only on condition of going into a trance. The result alone is related

They lived autobiographies

To a Bonaparte it represents what Jacob Astor meant when he said, "The first hundred thousand dollars are the most difficult." It is the beginning, the possibility of a fortune, not a fortune itself. With it, Bonaparte, the greedy little soldier, could go to Paris and begin the story.

And he loved her—with the exalted and romantic intensity that a social climber gives to a woman whom he thinks superior to his own class.

The sacrilegious moment had come for counting and preserving; and the gods are insulted. Everything after this moment goes mysteriously awry, as heretofore it had gone mysteriously right.

They, whether steel kings or Bonapartes, cannot, after a certain age, endure solitude. For it is the solitude, even though strictly relative in the majority of cases, that kills them, or sends them on the road to Waterloo.

Who can enjoy acting in an empty theater ?

Napoleon taught the world, or perhaps only satisfied a latent longing and gave it shape and hope, to want to be rewarded, visibly, definitely, let us say inorganically, for its deeds. Curiously enough, this mode of thought is even commoner among women than men ; the postulation of an infallible judge somewhere, somehow, who will examine work done and measure it exactly and register it in a stepped list of rewards.

The whole plot was a sinister drollery, the simple delight of stirring up great crowds to die and kill, of one who could not be swayed by anything himself; the anticipation of the spectacle of fear by one who was terrified at nothing. The vice of a man who had become inhuman by losing his human greed.

In politics, where everything romantic and sentimental is folly, the converse is usually considered true, and every brutality is thought sound sense

We will never have Fascism in England; no Englishman will dress up, not even for a revolution.

Adventure must start with running away from home.

General jackdaw culture, very little more than a collection of charming miscomprehensions, untargeted enthusiasms, and a general habit of skimming.

The most important thing in life is not to capitalize on your successes-any fool can do that. The really important thing is to profit from your mistakes.

A very beautiful woman hardly ever leaves a clear-cut impression of features and shape in the memory: usually there remains only an aura of living colour.

The most important thing in life is not to capitalize on your gains. Any fool can do that. The really important thing is to profit from your losses.

You need more fact in the dangerous art of giving presents than in any other social action.

A very beautiful woman hardly ever leaves a clear-cut impression of features and shape in the memory: usually there remains only an aura of living color.