"The statesman's task is to read the signs of the times."

"The truth is that with a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and when I have to do with a pirate, I try to be a pirate and a half."

"Man cannot create the current of events. He can only float with it and steer."

"When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice."

"Politics is the science of the possible."