Lazare Carnot quotes:

... the sciences are like a beautiful river, of which the course is easy to follow, when it has acquired a certain regularity; but if one wants to go back to the source, one will find it nowhere, because it is everywhere; it is spread so much [as to be] over all the surface of the earth; it is the same if one wants to go back to the origin of the sciences, one will find only obscurity, vague ideas, vicious circles; and one loses oneself in the primitive ideas.

The General Order is always: ......To manoeuver in a body and on the attack. ......To maintain strict but not pettifogging discipline. ......To keep the troops constantly at the ready. ......To employ the utmost vigilance on sentry go. ......To use the bayonet on every possible occasion. And to follow up the enemy remorselessly until he is utterly destroyed.

When a body acts upon another one, it is always immediately or through some intermediate body; this intermediate body is in general what one calls a machine.

In a free country there is much clamor, with little suffering; in a despotic state there is little complaint, with much grievance.