Napoleon I of France Quotes

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Charity and alms are recommended in every chapter of the Koran as being the most acceptable services, both to God and the Prophet.

Napoleon I of France
My maxim was, la carrière est ouverte aux talents [the road is open to the talented], without distinction of birth or fortune.

Napoleon I of France
It is easier to put up with unpleasantness from a man of one's own way of thinking than from one who takes an entirely different point of view.

Napoleon I of France
It is a mistake, too, to say that the face is the mirror of the soul. The truth is, men are very hard to know, and yet, not to be deceived, we must judge them by their present actions, but for the present only.

Napoleon I of France
The Allied Powers having proclaimed that the Emperor Napoleon is the sole obstacle to the re-establishment of peace in Europe, he, faithful to his oath, declares that he is ready to descend from the throne, to quit France, and even to relinquish life, for the good of his country.

Napoleon I of France
Nothing is so contrary to military rules as to make the strength of your army known, either in the orders of the day, in proclamations, or in the newspapers.

Napoleon I of France
Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment.

Napoleon I of France
It is not necessary to prohibit or encourage oddities of conduct which are not harmful.

Napoleon I of France
[Women] belong to the highest bidder. Power is what they like – it is the greatest of all aphrodisiacs.

Napoleon I of France
What then is, generally speaking, the truth of history? A fable agreed upon.

Napoleon I of France
Old men who preserve the desires of youth lose in consideration what they gain in ridicule.

Napoleon I of France
Never march by flank in front of an army in position. This principle is absolute.

Napoleon I of France
In war, character and opinion make more than half of the reality.

Napoleon I of France
Unhappy the general who comes on the field of battle with a system.

Napoleon I of France
To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, would be to be a god.

Napoleon I of France
The great difficulty with politics is, that there are no established principles.

Napoleon I of France
There is no such thing as an absolute despotism; it is only relative. A man cannot wholly free himself from obligation to his fellows. A sultan who cut off heads from caprice, would quickly lose his own in the same way. Excesses tend to check themselves by reason of their own violence. What the ocean gains in one place it loses in another.

Napoleon I of France
The art of war consists in being always able, even with an inferior army, to have stronger forces than the enemy at the point of attack or the point which is attacked.

Napoleon I of France
Called to the throne by the voice of the people, my maxim has always been: A career open to talent without distinction of birth. It is this system of equality for which the European oligarchy detests me

Napoleon I of France
Europe is a molehill. It has never had any great empires, like those of the Orient, numbering six hundred million souls.

Napoleon I of France
When Asked by Cacault how Pope Pius should be handled:
As though he had 200,000 men.

Napoleon I of France
One must learn to forgive and not to hold a hostile, bitter attitude of mind, which offends those about us and prevents us from enjoying ourselves; one must recognize human shortcomings and adjust himself to them rather than to be constantly finding fault with them.

Napoleon I of France
Ordinarily men exercise their memory much more than their judgment.

Napoleon I of France
Whatever misanthropists may say, ingrates and the perverse are exceptions in the human species.

Napoleon I of France
Parties weaken themselves by their fear of capable men.

Napoleon I of France
The general of the sea has need of only one science, that of navigation. The one on land has need of all, or of a talent which is the equivalent of all, that will enable him to profit by all experience, and all knowledge. A general of the sea has nothing to divine. He knows where his enemy is, he knows his strength. A general on land never knows anything with certainty, never sees his enemy well, and never knows positively where he is.

Napoleon I of France
A king is sometimes obliged to commit crimes; but they are the crimes of his position.

Napoleon I of France
What are we? What is the future? What is the past? What magic fluid envelops us and hides from us the things it is most important for us to know? We are born, we live, and we die in the midst of the marvelous.

Napoleon I of France
A King should sacrifice the best affections of his heart for the good of his country; no sacrifice should be above his determination.

Napoleon I of France
I may have had many projects, but I never was free to carry out any of them. It did me little good to be holding the helm; no matter how strong my hands, the sudden and numerous waves were stronger still, and I was wise enough to yield to them rather than resist them obstinately and make the ship founder. Thus I never was truly my own master but was always ruled by circumstances.

Napoleon I of France