Napoleon I of France Quotes

221 Sourced Quotes

You know, my dear doctor, the art of healing is simply the art of lulling and calming the imagination.

Napoleon I of France
A victorious general must know how to employ severity, justness, and mildness by turns, if he would allay sedition or prevent it.

Napoleon I of France
Every means should be taken to attach the soldier to his colours.

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

Napoleon I of France
I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle this matter by lunch time.

Napoleon I of France
It is not set speeches at the moment of battle that render soldiers brave.

Napoleon I of France
Never lose sight of this maxim, that you should establish your cantonments at the most distant and best protected point from the enemy, especially where a surprise is possible. By this means you will have time to unite all your forces before he can attack you.

Napoleon I of France
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.

Napoleon I of France
Medicine is not an exact and positive science but a science based on conjectures and observations. I would have more confidence in a physician who has not studied the natural sciences than in one who has.

Napoleon I of France
It is an approved maxim in war, never to do what the enemy wishes you to do, for this reason alone, that he desires it.

Napoleon I of France
When you determine to risk a battle, reserve to yourself every possible chance of success, more particularly if you have to deal with an adversary of superior talent, for if you are beaten, even in the midst of your magazines and your communications, woe to the vanquished!

Napoleon I of France
You are a physician, doctor. You would promise life to a corpse if he could swallow pills.

Napoleon I of France
All generals, officers, and soldiers who capitulate in battle to save their own lives should be decimated.

Napoleon I of France
When you have resolved to fight a battle, collect your whole force. Dispense with nothing. A single battalion sometimes decides the day.

Napoleon I of France
The sciences, which have revealed so many secrets and destroyed so many prejudices, are destined to render us yet greater service. New truths, new discoveries will unveil secrets still more essential to the happiness of men — but only if we give our esteem to the scientists and our protection to the sciences.

Napoleon I of France
Lagrange is the lofty pyramid of the mathematical sciences.

Napoleon I of France
From the top of those pyramids, forty centuries look down on you.

Napoleon I of France
Ordinary men died, men of iron were taken prisoner: I only brought back with me men of bronze.

Napoleon I of France
Whatever shall we do in that remote spot? Well, we will write our memoirs. Work is the scythe of time.

Napoleon I of France
Kiss the feet of Popes provided their hands are tied.

Napoleon I of France
I see that everybody has lost their head since the infamous capitulation of Bailén. I realise that I must go there myself to get the machine working again.

Napoleon I of France
Think of it, soldiers; from the summit of these pyramids, forty centuries look down upon you.
Before the Battle of the Pyramids

Napoleon I of France
To plan to reserve cavalry for the finish of the battle, is to have no conception of the power of combined infantry and cavalry charges, either for attack or for defense.

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

Napoleon I of France
It is rare that a legislature reasons. It is too quickly impassioned.

Napoleon I of France
Democracy may become frenzied, but it has feelings and can be moved. As for aristocracy, it is always cold and never forgives.

Napoleon I of France
Conscience is the most sacred thing among men. Every man has within him a still small voice, which tells him that nothing on earth can oblige him to believe that which he does not believe. The worst of all tyrannies is that which obliges eighteen-twentieths of a nation to embrace a religion contrary to their beliefs, under penalty of being denied their rights as citizens and of owning property, which, in effect, is the same thing as being without a country.

Napoleon I of France
A beautiful woman pleases the eye, a good woman pleases the heart: one is a jewel, the other a treasure.

Napoleon I of France
It is only with prudence, sagacity, and much dexterity that great aims are accomplished, and all obstacles surmounted. Otherwise nothing is accomplished.

Napoleon I of France
To listen to the interests of all, marks an ordinary government; to foresee them, marks a great government.

Napoleon I of France