Top 867 Quotes & Sayings by Napoleon Bonaparte - Page 9

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

As for me, to love you alone, to make you happy, to do nothing which would contradict your wishes, this is my destiny and the meaning of my life.

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?

The true wealth of a state consists in the number of its inhabitants, in their toil and industry.

The logical end to defensive warfare is surrender.

This accession of territory affirms forever the power of the United States, and I have given England a maritime rival who sooner or later will humble her pride.

Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen, that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space.

The sovereignty of the people is inalienable.

The life of a citizen is the property of his country.

Which is heavier: a soldier's pack or a slave's chains?

England would be better off without Canada; it keeps her in a prepared state for war at a great expense and constant irritation.

I may have had many projects, but I never was free to carry out any of them. It did me little good to be holding the helm; no matter how strong my hands, the sudden and numerous waves were stronger still, and I was wise enough to yield to them rather than resist them obstinately and make the ship founder. Thus I never was truly my own master but was always ruled by circumstances.

The contagion of crime is like that of the plague. Criminals collected together corrupt each other. They are worse than ever when, at the termination of their punishment, they return to society.

Laws which are consistent in theory often prove chaotic in practice.

Conquest has made me what I am, only conquest can maintain me.

There must be Religion. Otherwise the poor would murder the rich.

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.

If I were an Englishman, I should esteem the man who advised a war with China to be the greatest living enemy of my country. You would be beaten in the end, and perhaps a revolution in India would follow.

Our hour is marked, and no one can claim a moment of life beyond what fate has predestined.

When you set out to take Vienna, take Vienna.

An army's effectiveness depends on its size, training, experience, and morale, and morale is worth more than any of the other factors combined.

In war, three-quarters turns on personal character and relations; the balance of manpower and materials counts only for the remaining quarter.

Mankind are in the end always governed by superiority of intellectual faculties, and none are more sensible of this than the military profession. When, on my return from Italy, I assumed the dress of the Institute, and associated with men of science, I knew what I was doing: I was sure of not being misunderstood by the lowest drummer boy in the army.

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.

The merit of Mahomet is that he founded a religion without an inferno.

Men grow old quickly on the battlefield.

I know he's a good general, but is he lucky?

Without cavalry, battles are without result.

But it is at home and not in public that one should wash ones dirty linen. [Fr., Car c'est en famille, ce n'est pas en public, qu'un lave son linge sale.]

What is the government? Nothing, unless supported by opinion.

They wanted me to be a Washington.

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

History paints the human heart.

All things proclaim the existence of God.

I would rather have a general who was lucky than one who was good.

I saw the crown of France laying on the ground, so I picked it up with my sword.

My dominion ends where that of conscience begins.

What is a throne? - a bit of wood gilded and covered in velvet. I am the state- I alone am here the representative of the people. Even if I had done wrong you should not have reproached me in public - people wash their dirty linen at home. France has more need of me than I of France.

I believe love to be hurtful to society, and to the individual happiness of men. I believe, in short, that love does more harm than good.

The bed has become a place of luxury to me! I would not exchange it for all the thrones in the world.

The practice of law sharpens the mind by making it narrow.

When Monarchs abuse the rights with which they have been invested by the confidence of the people, and bring down upon their heads the calamity of war, the people have the right to withdraw their allegiance.

Necessity dominates inclination, will, and right.

The advance and perfecting of mathematics are closely joined to the prosperity of the nation.

When I was happy I thought I knew men, but it was fated that I should know them in misfortune only.

If I had not been defeated in Acre against Jezzar Pasha of Turk. I would conquer all of the East.

Never interfere with an enemy in the process of destroying himself.

Unite for the public safety, if you would remain an independent nation.

As a rule it is circumstances that make men.

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.

An army which cannot be reenforced is already defeated.

The nature of Christ's existence is mysterious, I admit; but this mystery meets the wants of man. Reject it, and the world is an inexplicable riddle; believe it, and the history of our race is satisfactorily explained.

In war it is not men, but the man who counts.

In political administration, no problem is ever simple. It can never be reduced to the question whether a certain measure is good or not.

It strengthens the bonds between nations to have the same civil laws and the same monetary system.

The mind of a general ought to resemble and be as clear as the field-glass of a telescope.

To attach no importance to public opinion, is a proof that you do not merit its suffrage.

In order that a people may be free, it is necessary that the governed be sages, and those who govern, gods.

You cannot stop me; I spend thirty thousand men a month.

Reconnaissance memoranda should always be written in the simplest style and be purely descriptive. They should never stray from their objective by introducing extraneous ideas.