Back to People
Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes
“A leader is a dealer in hope.”
“If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.”
“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.”
“The best cure for the body is a quiet mind.”
“The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies.”
“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.”
“He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.”
“The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.”
“Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”
“I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.”
“Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”
“A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.”
“Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.”
“The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.”
“Ability is nothing without opportunity.”
“History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.”
“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.”
“Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.”
“Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.”
“There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed.”
“An army marches on its stomach.”
“Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.”
“From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.”
“The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.”
“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”
“A true man hates no one.”
“Imagination rules the world.”
“Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.”
“The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know.”
“In politics... never retreat, never retract... never admit a mistake.”
“Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows.”
“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.”
“It requires more courage to suffer than to die.”
“There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time.”
“The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.”
“Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.”
“If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.”
“Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment.”
“Water, air, and cleanness are the chief articles in my pharmacy.”
“One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority.”
“Throw off your worries when you throw off your clothes at night.”
“It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.”
“Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.”
“A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.”
“Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals.”
“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.”
“There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.”
“A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.”
“He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.”
“The best way to keep one's word is not to give it.”
“There are only two forces that unite men - fear and interest.”
“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.”
“France has more need of me than I have need of France.”
“What is history but a fable agreed upon?”
“If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.”
“Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.”
“Respect the burden.”
“Riches do not consist in the possession of treasures, but in the use made of them.”
“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.”
“One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent.”
“The great proof of madness is the disproportion of one's designs to one's means.”
“The extent of your consciousness is limited only by your ability to love and to embrace with your love the space around you, and all it contains.”
“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.”
“It is my wish that my ashes may repose on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people, whom I have loved so well.”
“The human race is governed by its imagination.”
“The army is the true nobility of our country.”
“You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy's ranks.”
“Let the path be open to talent.”
“The French complain of everything, and always.”
“A Constitution should be short and obscure.”
“I am the successor, not of Louis XVI, but of Charlemagne.”
“The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to destiny.”
“All religions have been made by men.”
“When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.”
“I have only one counsel for you - be master.”
“Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.”
“War is the business of barbarians.”
“Ambition never is in a greater hurry than I; it merely keeps pace with circumstances and with my general way of thinking.”
“When soldiers have been baptized in the fire of a battle-field, they have all one rank in my eyes.”
“The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.”
“The act of policing is, in order to punish less often, to punish more severely.”
“A celebrated people lose dignity upon a closer view.”
“Forethought we may have, undoubtedly, but not foresight.”
“With audacity one can undertake anything, but not do everything.”
“The battle of Austerlitz is the grandest of all I have fought.”
“England is a nation of shopkeepers.”
“Men take only their needs into consideration - never their abilities.”
“A man cannot become an atheist merely by wishing it.”
“The infectiousness of crime is like that of the plague.”
“I made all my generals out of mud.”
“We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.”
“Medicines are only fit for old people.”
“Courage isn't having the strength to go on - it is going on when you don't have strength.”
“In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”
“Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”
“Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.”
“Imagination governs the world.”
