Napoleon Bonaparte
Emperor of the French
Lived: 1769–1821
"Soldiers! Forty centuries behold you!"
- Napoleon Bonaparte, July 1798.
To his army before the Battle of the Pyramids.
"The moral is to the physical as three to one"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"My business is to succeed, and I’m good at it. I create my Iliad by my actions, create it day by day."
- Napoleon (1804),
in a conversation with Pope Pius VII at Fontainebleau.
"the secret of war lies in the communications"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"The barbarous custom of having men beaten who are suspected of having important secrets to reveal must be abolished. It has always been recognized that this way of interrogating men, by putting them to torture, produces nothing worthwhile."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon to Berthier 11 Nov 1798, Corres., V, no. 3606 p. 128 quoted in - Napoleon on the Art of War
"A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon"
15 July 1815. To the captain of HMS Bellerophon.
HMS Bellerophon carried Napoleon from the Ile d'Aix to Plymouth
before he was transferred to the HMS Northumberland and taken into exile on St Helena.
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"It is better to have a known enemy than a forced ally"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"A man does not have himself killed for a half-pence a day or for a petty distinction.
You must speak to the soul in order to electrify him"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"Conscription is the vitality of a nation, the purification of its morality,
and the real foundations of all its habits"
- Napoleon, "Political Aphorisms" 1848
Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"To have good soldiers, a nation must always be at war."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
" The most dangerous moment comes with victory"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"The bayonet has always been the weapon of the brave and the chief tool of victory"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"Cavalry is useful before, during, and after the battle"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"Without cavalry, battles are without result"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Victory belongs to the most persevering.
-Napoleon Bonaparte
I love a brave soldier who has undergone the baptism of fire.
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Two armies are two bodies which meet and try to frighten each other.
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Soldiers usually win the battles and generals get the credit for them.
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"Courage is like love: it must have hope for nourishment."
- Napoleon Bonaparte ("Maxims")
"Human life is the only thing that takes care of itself."
- Napoleon Bonaparte (on why he left men exposed to the enemy in Russia)
"In war there is but one favorable moment; the great art is to seize it!"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"The most important qualification of a soldier is fortitude under fatigue and privation. Courage is only second; hardship, poverty and want are the best school for a soldier."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"There are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"There are certain things in war of which the commander alone comprehends the importance. Nothing but his superior firmness and ability can subdue and surmount all difficulties."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"Strategy is the art of making use of time and space.
I am less concerned about the latter than the former.
Space we can recover, lost time never."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"He that makes war without many mistakes has not made war very long."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"One bad general is worth two good ones."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Made a career of finding, and defeating, inept enemy generals.
"How many things apparently impossible have nevertheless been performed by resolute men who had no alternative but death."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"Read over and over again the campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Turenne, Eugene and Frederic. ... This is the only way to become a great general and master the secrets of the art of war. ..."
-Napoleon Bonaparte, "Military Maxims of Napoleon"
A celebrated people lose dignity upon a closer view.
Napoleon Bonaparte
A Constitution should be short and obscure.
Napoleon Bonaparte
A leader is a dealer in hope.
Napoleon Bonaparte
A man cannot become an atheist merely by wishing it.
Napoleon Bonaparte
A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.
Napoleon Bonaparte
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Napoleon Bonaparte
A revolution can be neither made nor stopped. The only thing that can be done is for one of several of its children to give it a direction by dint of victories.
Napoleon Bonaparte
A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.
Napoleon Bonaparte
A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.
Napoleon Bonaparte
A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.
Napoleon Bonaparte
A true man hates no one.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Ability is nothing without opportunity.
Napoleon Bonaparte
All religions have been made by men.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Ambition never is in a greater hurry that I; it merely keeps pace with circumstances and with my general way of thinking.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.
Napoleon Bonaparte
An army marches on its stomach.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Courage is like love; it must have hope to nourish it.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Forethought we may have, undoubtedly, but not foresight.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.
Napoleon Bonaparte
France has more need of me than I have need of France.
Napoleon Bonaparte
From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.
Napoleon Bonaparte
He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.
Napoleon Bonaparte
He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.
Napoleon Bonaparte
History is a set of lies agreed upon.
Napoleon Bonaparte
History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
Napoleon Bonaparte
I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.
Napoleon Bonaparte
I am the successor, not of Louis XVI, but of Charlemagne.
Napoleon Bonaparte
I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.
Napoleon Bonaparte
I have only one counsel for you - be master.
Napoleon Bonaparte
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.
Napoleon Bonaparte
I made all my generals out of mud.
Napoleon Bonaparte
If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.
Napoleon Bonaparte
If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.
Napoleon Bonaparte
If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.
Napoleon Bonaparte
If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Imagination rules the world.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.
Napoleon Bonaparte
In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.
Napoleon Bonaparte
In politics stupidity is not a handicap.
Napoleon Bonaparte
In politics... never retreat, never retract... never admit a mistake.
Napoleon Bonaparte
It is the cause and not the death that makes the martyr.
Napoleon Bonaparte
It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.
Napoleon Bonaparte
It requires more courage to suffer than to die.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Let the path be open to talent.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Medicines are only fit for old people.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Men are Moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Men take only their needs into consideration - never their abilities.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.
Napoleon Bonaparte
One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority.
Napoleon Bonaparte
One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.
Napoleon Bonaparte