Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes

Necessity dominates inclination, will, and right.

There is no class of people so hard to manage in a state, as those whose intentions are honest, but whose consciences are bewitched.

A portion of the multitude must ever be coerced.

You cannot treat with all the world at once.

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

You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her decks? I have no time for such nonsense.

Against attempts on my life, I trust in my luck, my good genius, and my guards.

I make my battle plans from the spirit of my sleeping soldiers

High politic is only common sense applied to great things.

It is cowardly to commit suicide. The English often kill themselves. It is a malady caused by the humid climate.

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

The infectiousness of crime is like that of the plague.

All the scholastic scaffolding falls, as a ruined edifice, before a single word: faith.

A Constitution should be short and obscure.

Two armies are two bodies which meet and try to frighten each other.

The Concordat is not the victory of any one party but the consolidation of all.

Promptly improve your accidents.

I have so often been mistaken that I no longer blush for it

The most desirable quality in a soldier is constancy in the support of fatigue; valor is only secondary.

He, who practices right, but in the hope of acquiring great renown, is very near to vice.

I may lose a battle but I will never lose a minute.

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.

Morality for the upper classes, the gallows for the rabbles.

No amount of money will induce someone to lay down their life, but they will gladly do so for a bit of yellow ribbon.

All the great captains have performed vast achievements by conforming with the rules of art--by adjusting efforts to obstacles.

The man fitted for affairs and authority never considers individuals, but things and their consequences.

Nothing is so important in war as an undivided command.

An army which cannot be regularly recruited is a doomed army.

There is no power without justice.

If you wage war, do it energetically and with severity. This is the only way to make it shorter and consequently less inhuman.

Collective crimes incriminate no one.

It is the business of cavalry to follow up the victory, and to prevent the beaten army from rallying.

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

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

As a rule it is circumstances that make men.

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

The public spirit is in the hands of the man who knows how to make use of it.

It's the unconquerable soul of man, and not the nature of the weapon he uses, that ensures victory

Do you know what amazes me more than anything else? The impotence of force to organize anything.

From first to last, Jesus is the same; always the same--majestic and simple, infinitely severe and infinitely gentle.

A celebrated people lose dignity upon a closer view.

Go Sir, gallop and don't forget that the world was made in six days. You can ask me for anything but not time.

If obedience is the result of the instinct of the masses, revolt is the result of their thought.

Independence, like honor, is a rocky island, without a beach.

He who cannot look over a battlefield with a dry eye, causes the death of many men uselessly.

If we could read the past histories of all our enemies we would disregard all hostility for them.

Give me enough medals and I’ll win you any war

The first method is that of a schemer and leads only to mediocre results; the other method is the path of genius and changes the face of the world.

There are two kinds of fidelity, that of dogs and that of cats; you, gentleman, have the fidelity of cats who never leave the house.

France always has plenty men of talent, but it is always deficient in men of action and high character.