Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes
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It is an ambassador's duty to stand up for his nation's foreign policy in any era and under any government whatsoever. Ambassadors are, in the full meaning of the term, titled spies.
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I am a soldier and accustomed to risking my life every day. I am full of the fire of youth; I cannot act with the restraint of an accomplished diplomat.
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History paints the human heart.
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I would believe any religion that could prove it had existed since the beginning of the world. But when I see Socrates, Plato, Moses, and Mohammed I do not think there is such a one. All religions owe their origin to man.
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Tis a principle of war that when you can use the lightning, 'tis better than cannon.
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Never lose sight of this maxim, that you should establish your cantonments at the most distant and best protected point from the enemy, especially where a surprise is possible. By this means you will have time to unite all your forces before he can attack you.
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My generals are a parcel of post inspectors.
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You don't reason with intellectuals. You shoot them.
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We live and die in the midst of marvels.
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One must learn to forgive and not to hold a hostile, bitter attitude of mind, which offends those about us and prevents us from enjoying ourselves. One must recognize human shortcomings and adjust himself to them rather than to be constantly finding fault with them.
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A legislator must know how to take advantage of even the defects of those he wants to govern. The art consists in making others work rather than in wearing oneself out.
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Two armies are two bodies which meet and try to frighten each other.
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The best medicine against the grapes of wrath is a whiff of grapeshot.
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The world soffers a lot. Not because the violence of bad people. But because of the silence of the good people.
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We are made weak both by idleness and distrust of ourselves. Unfortunate, indeed, is he who suffers from both. If he is a mere individual he becomes nothing; if he is a king he is lost.
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Mankind are in the end always governed by superiority of intellectual faculties, and none are more sensible of this than the military profession. When, on my return from Italy, I assumed the dress of the Institute, and associated with men of science, I knew what I was doing: I was sure of not being misunderstood by the lowest drummer boy in the army.
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In a battle, as in a siege, the art consists in concentrating very heavy fire on a particular point. The line of battle once established, the one who has the ability to concentrate an unlooked for mass of artillery suddenly and unexpectedly on one of these points is sure to carry the day.
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Nothing is more arrogant than the weakness which feels itself supported by power.
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There must be Religion. Otherwise the poor would murder the rich.
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Nothing makes the future look so rosy as to contemplate it through a glass of Chambertin.
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Friends must always be treated as if one day they might be enemies.
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The spectacle of a field of battle after the combat, is sufficient to inspire Princes with the love of peace, and the horror of war.
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I would rather have a general who was lucky than one who was good.
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More glorious to merit a sceptre than to possess one.