Napoleon Bonaparte's Quotes

Victory belongs to the most persevering.

Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.

A man cannot become an atheist merely by wishing it.

Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals.

He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.

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

If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.

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.

France has more need of me than I have need of France.

I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.

Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.

The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to destiny.

Water, air, and cleanness are the chief articles in my pharmacy.

The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.

The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.

What is history but a fable agreed upon?

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.

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

Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.

Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.

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.

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.

It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.

There are only two forces that unite men - fear and interest.

The army is the true nobility of our country.

When soldiers have been baptized in the fire of a battle-field, they have all one rank in my eyes.

Ambition never is in a greater hurry that I; it merely keeps pace with circumstances and with my general way of thinking.

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

War is the business of barbarians.

You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy's ranks.

I have only one counsel for you - be master.

England is a nation of shopkeepers.

Let the path be open to talent.

Men take only their needs into consideration - never their abilities.

Respect the burden.

The act of policing is, in order to punish less often, to punish more severely.

The human race is governed by its imagination.

We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.

Forethought we may have, undoubtedly, but not foresight.

One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent.

Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.

The great proof of madness is the disproportion of one's designs to one's means.

A Constitution should be short and obscure.

The infectiousness of crime is like that of the plague.

With audacity one can undertake anything, but not do everything.

From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.

Medicines are only fit for old people.

There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.

I made all my generals out of mud.

I am the successor, not of Louis XVI, but of Charlemagne.

The French complain of everything, and always.

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.

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.

Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

Women are nothing but machines for producing children.

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.

A leader is a dealer in hope.

Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.

History is a set of lies agreed upon.

A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.

In politics stupidity is not a handicap.

Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.

A true man hates no one.

Imagination rules the world.

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.

If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.

Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment.

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.

If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.

A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.