Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes (197 Quotes)

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

A resolute determination is the truest wisdom.

Know how to listen and be sure that silence often produces the same effects as science.

Music of all the arts has the most influence on the passions and the legislator should give it the greatest encouragement.

All religions have been made by men.

It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.

The best way to keep one's word is not to give it.

In politics... never retreat, never retract... never admit a mistake.

The most dangerous moment comes with victory.

Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.

It follows that any commander in chief who undertakes to carry out a plan which he considers defective is at fault he must put forth his reasons, insist on the plan being changed, and finally tender his resignation rather than be the instrument of h

An aristocracy is the true support of a monarchy.

A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.

It requires more courage to suffer than to die.

The conscience is the sacred haven of the liberty of man.

Great men grow tired of contentedness.

Do you know what astonished me most in the world The inability of force to create anything. In the long run, the sword is always beaten by the spirit.

Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.

I have made noise enough in the world already, perhaps too much, and am now getting old, and want retirement

'Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas' From the sublime to the ridiculous there is but one step.

Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.

In politics an absurdity is not a handicap.

The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to destiny.

He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.

Do you wish to find out the really sublime Repeat the Lord's Prayer.

There are times when a battle decides everything, and there are times when the most insignificant thing can decide the outcome of a battle

There are only two forces that unite men - fear and interest.

France has more need of me than I have need of France.

Vanity made the French Revolution liberty was only a pretext.

Ambition never is in a greater hurry that I; it merely keeps pace with circumstances and with my general way of thinking.

If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

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

Order marches with weighty and measured strides disorder is always in a hurry

Napoleon willed that he would, and did.

The act of policing is, in order to punish less often, to punish more severely.

A mathematician of the first rank, Laplace quickly revealed himself as only a mediocre administrator from his first work we saw that we had been deceived. Laplace saw no question from its true point of view he sought subtleties everywhere had only doubtful ideas, and finally carried the spirit of the infinitely small into administration.

What is history but a fable agreed upon?

Every private in the French army carries a Field Marshall wand in his knapsack.

In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.

The Bible is not merely a bookit is a living power.... Nowhere as in the Bible can be found such a series of beautiful ideas and admirable maxims which pose before us like the battalions of a celestial army.... The soul can never go astray while it has this book for its guide.

He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.

Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.

Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.

Let the path be open to talent.

The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.

The greatest general is he who makes the fewest mistakes.

Why and how are words so important that they cannot be too often used.

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.