Top 60 Quotes by Marquis de Lafayette

It is foolishly thought by some that democratical constitutions will not, cannot, last; that the States will quarrel with each other; that a king, or at least a nobility, are indispensable for the prosperity of a nation.

The continental troops have as much courage and real discipline as those that are opposed to them. They are more inured to privation, more patient than Europeans, who, on these two points, cannot be compared to them.

The American women are very pretty and have great simplicity of character, and the extreme neatness of their appearance is truly delightful: cleanliness is everywhere even more studiously attended to here than in England.

Whatever may be my feelings of personal gratitude to the Navy of the United States, I feel myself under still greater obligations to them for the honor they have done to the American name in every part of the globe.

The days of the revolution now give place to the period of regular organization, liberty, and prosperity, which that revolution guarantees. Thus, when everything concurs for the pacification of internal troubles, the threats of the enemies of France must, in the face of the public happiness, appear even to themselves insensate.