Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes
It is only by prudence, wisdom, and dexterity, that great ends are attained and obstacles overcome. Without these qualities nothing succeeds.
In politics, an absurdity is not an impediment.
He who fears being conquered is certain of defeat.
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.
Speeches pass away, but acts remain.
An army which cannot be reenforced is already defeated.
The advancement and perfection of mathematics are intimately connected with the prosperity of the State.
Audacity succeeds as often as it fails; in life it has an even chance.
The truth is that one ought to serve his people worthily, and not strive solely to please them. The best way to gain a people is to do that which is best for them. Nothing is more dangerous than to flatter a people. If it does not get what it wants immediately, it is irritated and thinks that promises have not been kept; and if then it is resisted, it hates so much the more as it feels itself deceived.
The greater the man, the less is he opinionative, he depends upon events and circumstances.
There is nothing so imperious as feebleness which feels itself supported by force.
I love a brave soldier who has undergone the baptism of fire.
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. The poor wretches say anything that comes into their mind and what they think the interrogator wishes to know.
There is a joy in danger.
Existence is a curse, rather than a blessing.
Those who are free from common prejudices acquire others.
My most splendid campaign was that of March 20; not a single shot was fired.
Greatness is nothing unless it be lasting.
Men have their virtues and their vices, their heroisms and their perversities; men are neither wholly good nor wholly bad, but possess and practice all that there is of good and bad here below. Such is the general rule. Temperament, education, the accidents of life, are modifying factors. Outside of this, everything is ordered arrangement, everything is chance. Such has been my rule of expectation and it has usually brought me success.
You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.
My waking thoughts are all of thee.
Death is nothing; but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Man achieves in life only by commanding the capabilities nature has given him, or by creating them within himself by education and by knowing how to profit by the difficulties encountered.
How many seemingly impossible things have been accomplished by resolute men because they had to do, or die.
I may have had many projects, but I never was free to carry out any of them. Thus I never was truly my own master but was always ruled by circumstances.
The best cure for the body is to quiet the mind.
Victories will be won, one of these days, without cannon, and without bayonets.
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
What I have done up to this is nothing. I am only at the beginning of the course I must run.
Doctor, no medicine. We are machines made to live - organized expressly for that purpose. Such is our nature. Do not counteract the living principle. Leave it at liberty to defend itself, and it will do better than your drugs.
Laws which are consistent in theory often prove chaotic in practice.
The true character of man ever displays itself in great events.
Our hour is marked, and no one can claim a moment of life beyond what fate has predestined.
All great events hang by a hair. The man of ability takes advantage of everything and neglects nothing that can give him a chance of success; whilst the less able man sometimes loses everything by neglecting a single one of those chances.
The woman we love is ever the handsomest of her sex.
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.
There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
There are so many laws that no one is safe from hanging.
Soldiers usually win the battles and generals get the credit for them.
Victory belongs to the most persevering.
One can lead a nation only by helping it see a bright outlook. A leader is a dealer in hope.
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.
Success is the most convincing talker in the world.
A true man hates no one.
What are we? What is the future? What is the past? What magic fluid envelops us and hides from us the things it is most important for us to know? We are born, we live, and we die in the midst of the marvelous.
