Napoleon I of France - People Quotes

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Hereditary succession to the magistracy is absurd, as it tends to make a property of it; it is incompatible with the sovereignty of the people.

Napoleon I of France
A Government protected by foreigners will never be accepted by a free people.

Napoleon I of France
What is a throne? — a bit of wood gilded and covered in velvet. I am the state— I alone am here the representative of the people. Even if I had done wrong you should not have reproached me in public — people wash their dirty linen at home. France has more need of me than I of France.

Napoleon I of France
A great people may be killed, but they cannot be intimidated.

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
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
Orders and decorations are necessary in order to dazzle the people.

Napoleon I of France
Religion is an all-important matter in a public school for girls. Whatever people say, it is the mother's safeguard, and the husband's. What we ask of education is not that girls should think, but that they should believe.

Napoleon I of France
The people must not be counted upon; they cry indifferently : "Long live the King!" and "Long live the Conspirators!" a proper direction must be given to them, and proper instruments employed to effect it.

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
In my opinion physicians kill as many people as we generals.

Napoleon I of France