What would happen if I were to make the same claim?
Monsieur de Talleyrand would smile behind his hand, and the Parisians would write little lampoons upon the walls.' He did not appear to be addressing us, but rather to be expressing his thoughts aloud, while allowing them to run to the most fantastic and extravagant lengths.

This it was which he called Ossianising, because it recalled to him the wild vague dreams of the Gaelic Ossian, whose poems had always had a fascination for him.

De Meneval has told me that for an hour at a time he has sometimes talked in this strain of the most intimate thoughts and aspirations of his heart, while his courtiers have stood round in silence waiting for the instant when he would return once more to his practical and incisive self.
'The great ruler,' said he, 'must have the power of religion behind him as well as the power of the sword.

It is more important to command the souls than the bodies of men.

The Sultan, for example, is the head of the faith as well as of the army.