"If France is to be judged, judge her not by the effects of her defeat but by her readiness to sacrifice herself."

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We strive as hard to hide our hearts from ourselves as from others, and always with more success; for in deciding upon our own case we are both judge, jury, and executioner, and where sophistry cannot overcome the first, or flattery the second, self-love is always ready to defeat the sentence by bribing the third.

— Charles Caleb Colton