Napoleon Bonaparte

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

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

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

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

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.

Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.

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

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.

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

The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies.

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

A leader is a dealer in hope.

War is the business of barbarians.

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.

Imagination rules the world.

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

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

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.

The French complain of everything, and always.

The infectiousness of crime is like that of the plague.

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

The army is the true nobility of our country.

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

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

A celebrated people lose dignity upon a closer view.

There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time.

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

Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.

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

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

In politics stupidity is not a handicap.

Medicines are only fit for old people.

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

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.

Respect the burden.

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

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

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

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

A Constitution should be short and obscure.

The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.

Let the path be open to talent.

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

What is history but a fable agreed upon?

England is a nation of shopkeepers.

I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies.

One must change one’s tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one’s superiority.

Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.

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

In politics… never retreat, never retract… never admit a mistake.

Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.

The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.

You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.

Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows.

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

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.

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.

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

Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.

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

A picture is worth a thousand words.

The best cure for the body is a quiet mind.

Victory belongs to the most persevering.

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

A true man hates no one.

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

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.

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.

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

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

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

When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

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.

Forethought we may have, undoubtedly, but not foresight.

All religions have been made by men.

There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed.

I have only one counsel for you – be master.

An army marches on its stomach.

Women are nothing but machines for producing children.

The word impossible is not in my dictionary.

The human race is governed by its imagination.

Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.

A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.

The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it.

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.

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

History is a set of lies agreed upon.

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

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

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

I made all my generals out of mud.

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

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

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

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

He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.

It requires more courage to suffer than to die.

A man cannot become an atheist merely by wishing it.

We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.

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