Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes
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In the last analysis, one must be a military man in order to govern. It is only with boot and spurs that one can govern a horse.
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I may have had many projects, but I never was free to carry out any of them. It did me little good to be holding the helm; no matter how strong my hands, the sudden and numerous waves were stronger still, and I was wise enough to yield to them rather than resist them obstinately and make the ship founder. Thus I never was truly my own master but was always ruled by circumstances.
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There is no real force without justice.
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A starving army is actually worse than none.
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The Allied Powers having proclaimed that the Emperor Napoleon is the sole obstacle to the re-establishment of peace in Europe, he, faithful to his oath, declares that he is ready to descend from the throne, to quit France, and even to relinquish life, for the good of his country.
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The public spirit is in the hands of the man who knows how to make use of it.
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I do not believe it is in our nature to love impartially. We deceive ourselves when we think we can love two beings, even our own children, equally. There is always a dominant affection.
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In war as in love, to bring matters to a close, you must get close together.
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On victory, you deserve beer. On defeat, you need it.
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Our credulity is a part of the imperfection of our natures. It is inherent in us to desire to generalize, when we ought, on the contrary, to guard ourselves very carefully from this tendency.
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Life is strewn with so many dangers, and can be the source of so many misfortunes, that death is not the greatest of them.
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In war, as in love, we must come into contact before we triumph.
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Circumstances-what are circumstances? I make circumstances.
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How many things apparently impossible have nevertheless been performed by resolute men who had no alternative but death.
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To command, you must first of all speak to the eyes.
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The art of the police is not to see what it is useless that it should see.
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Timid and cowardly soldiers cause the loss of a nation's independence; but pusillanimous magistrates destroy the empire of the laws, the rights of the throne, and even social order itself.
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I treat policies like war. I hoodwink one flank so as to trounce the other. In my family we kneel only to God.
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Lies circle the earth while Truth is still trying to put on its shoes.
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The contagion of crime is like that of the plague. Criminals collected together corrupt each other. They are worse than ever when, at the termination of their punishment, they return to society.
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Until then, mio dolce amor, a thousand kisses; but give me none in return, for they set my blood on fire.
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A man made for public life and authority never takes account of personalities; he only takes account of things, of their weight and their conseqences.
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It must be recognized that the real truths of history are hard to discover. Happily, for the most part, they are rather matters of curiosity than of real importance.
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Every private in the French army carries a Field Marshall wand in his knapsack.