Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes
From triumph to downfall there is but one step. I have noted that, in the most momentous occasions, mere nothings have always decided the outcome of the greatest events.
What is the future? What is the past? What are we? What is the magic fluid that surrounds us and conceals the things we most need to know? We live and die in the midst of marvels.
Nothing is more arrogant than the weakness which feels itself supported by power.
God has decreed that there be sick and poor in this world, but in the next it will be the other way around.
When I give a minister an order, I leave it to him to find the means to carry it out.
A magistrate is not a father; he must be just and severe. Only tyrants are fathers.
I hope before long to press you in my arms and shall shower on you a million burning kisses as under the Equator.
Do you know what is more hard to bear than the reverses of fortune? It is the baseness, the hideous ingratitude, of man.
Surely in a matter of this kind we should endeavor to do something, that we may say that we have not lived in vain, that we may leave some impress of ourselves on the sands of time.
Europe thus divided into nationalities freely formed and free internally, peace between States would have become easier: the United States of Europe would become a possibility.
The most terrible of all my battles was the one before Moscow. The French showed themselves to be worthy of victory, but the Russians showed themselves worthy of being invincible.
A journalist is a grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations. Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.
A man who has no consideration for the needs of his men ought never to be given command.
Governments keep their promises only when they are forced, or when it is to their advantage to do so.
If fifty thousand men were to die for the good of the State, I certainly would weep for them, but political necessity comes before everything else.
Those who failed to oppose me, who readily agreed with me and accepted all my views, were those who did me the most injury.
Do not talk to me of goodness, of abstract justice, of nature law. Necessity is the highest law, public welfare is the highest justice.
The basic principle that we must follow in directing the armies of the Republic is this: that they must feed themselves on war at the expense of the enemy territory.
Religion is, in fact, the dominion of the soul; it is the hope, the anchor of safety, the deliverance from evil. What a service has Christianity rendered to humanity!
