Napoleon I of France Quotes

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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
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
The laws of circumstance are abolished by new circumstances.

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

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
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
The greater the man, the less is he opinionative, he depends upon events and circumstances.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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
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
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
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
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 is sometimes obliged to commit crimes; but they are the crimes of his position.

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
Parties weaken themselves by their fear of capable men.

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

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

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

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
The most difficult art is not in the choice of men, but in giving to the men chosen the highest service of which they are capable.

Napoleon I of France
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