Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes
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The battle of Austerlitz is the grandest of all I have fought.
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A celebrated people lose dignity upon a closer view.
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Parties weaken themselves by their fear of capable men.
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Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.
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The leader's role is to define reality, then give hope.
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What is history but a fable agreed upon?
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I feel myself driven towards an end that I do not know. As soon as I shall have reached it, as soon as I shall become unnecessary, an atom will suffice to shatter me. Till then, not all the forces of mankind can do anything against me.
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Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him.
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Impossible is the word found only in a fool's dictionary. Wise people create opportunities for themselves and make everything possible.
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Victory belongs to the most persevering.
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There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.
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Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
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The Jesuits are a MILITARY organization, not a religious order. Their chief is a general of an army, not the mere father abbot of a monastery. And the aim of this organization is power - power in its most despotic exercise - absolute power, universal power, power to control the world by the volition of a single man. Jesuitism is the most absolute of despotisms - and at the same time the greatest and most enormous of abuses.
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Once you have made up your mind, stick to it; there is no longer any 'if' or 'but'.
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The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.
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I have fought sixty battles, and I have learnt nothing which I did not know at the beginning.
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Washington is dead! This great man fought against Tyranny; he established the liberty of his country. His memory will always be dear to the French people, as it will be to all free men of the two worlds; and especially to French soldiers, who, like him and the American soldiers, have combated for liberty and equality.
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Every beggar shall be arrested. But to arrest a beggar merely in order to put him in jail would be barbarous and absurd. He should be arrested for the sole purpose of teaching him how to earn a living by his work.
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I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies.
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The act of policing is, in order to punish less often, to punish more severely.
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You can not lead a battle if you think you look silly on a horse.
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I am the successor, not of Louis XVI, but of Charlemagne.
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To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.
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A commander-in-chief cannot take as an excuse for his mistakes in warfare an order given by his sovereign or his minister when the person giving the order is absent from the field of operations and is imperfectly aware or wholly unaware of the latest state of affairs. It follows that any commander-in-chief who undertakes to carry out a plan which he considers defective is at fault; he must put forward his reasons, insist on the plan being changed, and finally tender his resignation rather than be the instrument of his army's downfall.