Napoleon I of France Quotes

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It is not that addresses at the opening of a battle make the soldiers brave. The old veterans scarcely hear them, and recruits forget them at the first boom of the cannon. Their usefulness lies in their effect on the course of the campaign, in neutralizing rumors and false reports, in maintaining a good spirit in the camp, and in furnishing matter for camp-fire talk. The printed order of the day should fulfill these different ends.

Napoleon I of France
One is more certain to influence men, to produce more effect on them, by absurdities than by sensible ideas.

Napoleon I of France
Sometimes a great example is necessary to all the public functionaries of the state.

Napoleon I of France
Never depend on the multitude, full of instability and whims; always take precautions against it.

Napoleon I of France
Some oblige as others insult. One is tempted to ask reparation of them for their services.

Napoleon I of France
A man who has no consideration for the needs of his men ought never to be given command.

Napoleon I of France
The division of labor, which has brought such perfection in mechanical industries, is altogether fatal when applied to productions of the mind. All work of the mind is superior in proportion as the mind that produces it is universal.

Napoleon I of France
The fool has one great advantage over a man of sense — he is always satisfied with himself.

Napoleon I of France
Malice delights to blacken the characters of prominent men.

Napoleon I of France
There are so many laws that no one is safe from hanging.

Napoleon I of France
The greater the man, the less is he opinionative, he depends upon events and circumstances.

Napoleon I of France
The truth is that one ought to serve his people worthily, and not strive solely to please them. The best way to gain a people is to do that which is best for them. Nothing is more dangerous than to flatter a people. If it does not get what it wants immediately, it is irritated and thinks that promises have not been kept; and if then it is resisted, it hates so much the more as it feels itself deceived.

Napoleon I of France
That a country may be truly free, the people should be all philosophers, and the rulers all gods.

Napoleon I of France
More glorious to merit a sceptre than to possess one.

Napoleon I of France
The laws of circumstance are abolished by new circumstances.

Napoleon I of France
It is not true that men never change; they change for the worse, as well as for the better. It is not true they are ungrateful; more often the benefactor rates his favors higher than their worth; and often too he does not allow for circumstances. If few men have the moral force to resist impulses, most men do carry within themselves the germs of virtues as well as of vices, of heroism as well as of cowardice. Such is human nature — education and circumstances do the rest.

Napoleon I of France
Lead the ideas of your time and they will accompany and support you; fall behind them and they drag you along with them; oppose them and they will overwhelm you.

Napoleon I of France
Go, sir, gallop, and don't forget that the world was made in six days. You can ask me for anything you like, except time.

Napoleon I of France
Unite for the public safety, if you would remain an independent nation.

Napoleon I of France
Great vices, and great virtues, are exceptions in mankind.

Napoleon I of France
Those who seek happiness in ostentation and dissipation, are like those who prefer the light of a candle to the splendor of the sun.

Napoleon I of France
Orders and decorations are necessary in order to dazzle the people.

Napoleon I of France
A prince who gets a reputation for good nature in the first year of his reign, is laughed at in the second.

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
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 rare that a legislature reasons. It is too quickly impassioned.

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
In war, groping tactics, half-way measures, lose everything.

Napoleon I of France