Napoleon I of France - Men Quotes

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

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

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
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
Malice delights to blacken the characters of prominent men.

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

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

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

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

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 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
Simpletons talk of the past, wise men of the present, and fools of the future.

Napoleon I of France
How many seemingly impossible things have been accomplished by resolute men because they had to do, or die.

Napoleon I of France
Policemen and prisons ought never to be the means used to bring men back to the practice of religion.

Napoleon I of France
Nations, like men, have their various ages—infancy, maturity, old age.

Napoleon I of France
I hope the time is not far off when I shall be able to unite all the wise and educated men of all the countries and establish a uniform regime based on the principles of the Quran which alone are true and which alone can lead men to happiness.

Napoleon I of France
Great men are like meteors: they glitter and are consumed to enlighten the world.

Napoleon I of France
The barbarous custom of having men beaten who are suspected of having important secrets to reveal must be abolished. It has always been recognized that this way of interrogating men, by putting them to torture, produces nothing worthwhile. The poor wretches say anything that comes into their mind and what they think the interrogator wishes to know.

Napoleon I of France
There are only two forces that unite men — fear and interest. All great revolutions originate in fear, for the play of interests does not lead to accomplishment.

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

Napoleon I of France
All men of genius, and all those who have gained rank in the republic of letters, are brothers, whatever may be the land of their nativity.

Napoleon I of France
What are the conditions that make for the superiority of an army? Its internal organization, military habits in officers and men, the confidence of each in themselves; that is to say, bravery, patience, and all that is contained in the idea of moral means.

Napoleon I of France
There are two levers for moving men—interest and fear.

Napoleon I of France
Men have their virtues and their vices, their heroisms and their perversities; men are neither wholly good nor wholly bad, but possess and practice all that there is of good and bad here below. Such is the general rule. Temperament, education, the accidents of life, are modifying factors. Outside of this, everything is ordered arrangement, everything is chance. Such has been my rule of expectation and it has usually brought me success.

Napoleon I of France
It is often in the audacity, in the steadfastness, of the general that the safety and the conservation of his men is found.

Napoleon I of France
At the beginning of a campaign it is important to consider whether or not to move forward; but when one has taken the offensive it is necessary to maintain it to the last extremity. However skilfully effected a retreat may be, it always lessens the morale of an army, since in losing the chances of success, they are remitted to the enemy. A retreat, moreover, costs much more in men and materials than the bloodiest engagements, with this difference, also, that in a battle the enemy loses practically as much as you do; while in a retreat you lose and he does not.

Napoleon I of France