Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes
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Nothing makes the future look so rosy as to contemplate it through a glass of Chambertin.
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The fool has one great advantage over a man of sense; he is always satisfied with himself.
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Give me enough medals and I’ll win you any war
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Men are ruled by toys.
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Unity of command is essential to the economy of time. Warfare in the field was like a siege: by directing all one's force to a single point a breach might be made, and the equilibrium of opposition destroyed.
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You cannot stop me; I spend thirty thousand men a month.
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All becomes easy when we follow the current of opinion; it is the ruler of the world.
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The most desirable quality in a soldier is constancy in the support of fatigue; valor is only secondary.
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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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A good sketch is better than a long speech.
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High politic is only common sense applied to great things.
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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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To imagine that it is possible to perform great military deeds without fighting is just empty dreams.
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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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People take England on trust, and repeat that Shakespeare is the greatest of all authors. I have read him: there is nothing that compares Racine or Corneille: his plays are unreadable, pitiful.
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An Emperor confides in national soldiers, not in mercenaries.
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God has given me the will and the force to overcome all obstacles.
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A beautiful woman like eyes, and a good heart; One is a beautiful thing, and other treasures.
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Two armies are two bodies which meet and try to frighten each other.
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Great battles are won with artillery.
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The word impossible is not French.
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Imagination governs the world.
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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.
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In matters of government, justice means force as well as virtue.
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A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights. Men are moved by only two mechanisms: fear and self-interest. Victory belongs to the most persevering.
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Audacity succeeds as often as it fails; in life it has an even chance.
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I cannot believe there is a god who punishes and rewards, for I see honest folk unlucky, and rogues unlucky.
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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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One bad general is worth two good ones.
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I would rather suffer with coffee than be senseless.
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Napoleon Bonaparte
- Born: August 15, 1769
- Died: May 5, 1821
- Occupation: Military Commander
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