Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes
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The first quality of a soldier is constancy in enduring fatigue and hardship. Courage is only the second. Poverty privation and want are the school of the good soldier.
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An army which cannot be regularly recruited is a doomed army.
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My mind is a chest of drawers. When I wish to deal with a subject, I shut all the drawers but the one in which the subject is to be found. When I am wearied, I shut all the drawers and go to sleep.
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My star was fading, I felt the reins slipping out of my grasp, and could do nothing to stop it.
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The greatest general is he who makes the fewest mistakes.
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The greatest danger occurs at the moment of victory.
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The sovereignty of the people is inalienable.
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Democracy may become frenzied, but it has feelings and can be moved. As for aristocracy, it is always cold and never forgives.
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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 waking thoughts are all of thee. Your portrait and the remembrance of last night's delirium have robbed my senses of repose. Sweet and incomparable Josephine, what an extraordinary influence you have over my heart. Are you vexed? Do I see you sad? Are you ill at ease? My soul is broken with grief, and there is no rest for your lover.
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The most terrible of all my battles was the one before Moscow. The French showed themselves to be worthy of victory, but the Russians showed themselves worthy of being invincible.
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The best medicine against the grapes of wrath is a whiff of grapeshot.
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In a narrow sphere great men are blunderers.
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When a man is a favorite of Fortune she never takes him unawares, and, however astonishing her favors may be, she finds him ready.
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Pure politics is merely the calculus of combinations and of chances.
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The basic principle that we must follow in directing the armies of the Republic is this: that they must feed themselves on war at the expense of the enemy territory.
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Hereditary succession to the magistracy is absurd, as it tends to make a property of it; it is incompatible with the sovereignty of the people.
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The greatest ornament of an illustrious life is modesty and humility, which go a great way in the character even of the most exalted princes.
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I don't employ Talleyrand when I want a thing done, but only when I want to have the appearance of wanting to do it.
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Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen, that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space.
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Flatterers and men of learning do not accord well with each other.
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Europe is a molehill. All great empires and revolutions have been on the Orient; six hundred millions live there.
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To a father who loves his children victor has no charms. When the heart speaks, glory itself is an illusion.
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While I live I will never resort to irredeemable paper.