Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes

A general must be a charlatan.

The art of being sometimes audacious and sometimes very prudent is the secret of success.

Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.

America is a fortunate country. She grows by the follies of our European nations.

The superior man is never in anyone's way.

For the stability of the Government, the people should have a considerable voice in the elections.

Our credulity is a part of the imperfection of our natures. It is inherent in us to desire to generalize, when we ought, on the contrary, to guard ourselves very carefully from this tendency.

In revolution there are only two sorts of men, those who cause them and those who profit by them.

Few really believe. The most only believe that they believe or even make believe.

It is an approved maxim in war, never to do what the enemy wishes you to do, for this reason alone, that he desires it.

Ability has nothing to do with opportunity.

Greatness be nothing unless it be lasting.

To extraordinary circumstance we must apply extraordinary remedies.

The bullet that will kill me is not yet cast.

Put your iron hand in a velvet glove.

The more I study the world, the more I am convinced of the inability of brute force to create anything durable.

A man is known by his conduct to his wife, to his family, and to those under him.

A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

Peoples of Egypt , you will be told that I have come to destroy your religion. Do not believe it! Reply that I have come to restore your rights!

Destiny urges me to a goal of which I am ignorant. Until that goal is attained I am invulnerable, unassailable. When Destiny has accomplished her purpose in me, a fly may suffice to destroy me.

What my enemies call a general peace is my destruction. What I call peace is merely the disarmament of my enemies. Am I not more moderate than they?

Fools have a great advantage over the wise; they are always self-satisfied.

There shall be no Alps.

You can do anything with bayonets except sit on them

My true glory is not to have won 40 battles ... Waterloo will erase the memory of so many victories, ... But ... what will live forever, is my Civil Code.

One can lead a nation only by helping it see a bright outlook. A leader is a dealer in hope.

Riches do not consist in the possession of treasures, but in the use made of them.

Throw off your worries when you throw off your clothes at night.

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.

Good and decent people must be protected and persuaded by gentle means, but the rabble must be led by terror.

Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.

Machiavelli is right: one always must live with one's friends with the idea that they may turn into one's enemies. He should have said, with everyone.

The bayonet has always been the weapon of the brave and the chief tool of victory

They wanted me to be a Washington.

All things proclaim the existence of God.

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.

I may be accused or rashness, but not sluggishness.

Knowledge and history are the enemies of religion.

True character stands the test of emergencies. Do not be mistaken, it is weakness from which the awakening is rude.

Life is strewn with so many dangers, and can be the source of so many misfortunes, that death is not the greatest of them.

The art of choosing men is not nearly so difficult as the art of enabling those chosen to attain their full worth.

There are two levers for moving men - interest and fear.

I engage and after that I see what to do.

I have made noise enough in the world already, perhaps too much, and am now getting old, and want retirement.

Ordinary men died, men of iron were taken prisoner: I only brought back with me men of bronze.

The implements to him who can handle them.

A general-in-chief should ask himself several times in the day, What if the enemy were to appear now in my front, or on my right, or my left?

Has a man the right to kill himself? Yes, if his death harms no one and if life is an evil to him. When is life an evil? When it offers a man nothing but suffering and pain.

The greatest ornament of an illustrious life is modesty and humility, which go a great way in the character even of the most exalted princes.