Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes
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Parties weaken themselves by their fear of capable men.
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The best cure for the body is a quiet mind.
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Remember that a man, a true man, never hates. His rages and his bad moods never last beyond the present moment-like electric shocks.
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Victory belongs to the most persevering.
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The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.
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Republican despotism is more fertile in acts of tyranny, because everyone has a hand in it.
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The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to destiny.
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An empty throne always tempts me.
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To have a right estimate of a man's character, we must see him in misfortune.
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My enemies make appointments at my tomb.
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If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.
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Throw off your worries when you throw off your clothes at night.
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War is the business of barbarians.
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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.
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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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This soldier, I realized, must have had friends at home and in his regiment; yet he lay there deserted by all except his dog. I looked on, unmoved, at battles which decided the future of nations. Tearless, I had given orders which brought death to thousands. Yet here I was stirred, profoundly stirred, stirred to tears. And by what? By the grief of one dog. Napoleon Bonaparte, on finding a dog beside the body of his dead master, licking his face and howling, on a moonlit field after a battle. Napoleon was haunted by this scene until his own death.
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I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires, and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and whatever other religions the distance of infinity.
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In politics... never retreat, never retract... never admit a mistake.
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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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You cannot stop me; I spend thirty thousand men a month.
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Neglect of duty does not cease, by repetition, to be neglect of duty.
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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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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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That man made me miss my destiny.