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Quotes from Napoleon : In His Own Words — Napoleon

1769–1821 France

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114 quotes

There are so many laws that no one is safe from hanging.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

A book in which there were no lies would be a curiosity.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

An army which cannot be reenforced is already defeated.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

The moment of greatest peril is the moment of victory.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

In politics, an absurdity is not an impediment.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

In France, only the impossible is admired.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Democracy may become frenzied, but it has feelings and can be moved. As for aristocracy, it is always cold and never forgives.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

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 : In His Own Words (1916)

The praises of enemies are always to be suspected. A man of honor will not permit himself to be flattered by them, except when they are given after the cessation of hostilities.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

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.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Man achieves in life only by commanding the capabilities nature has given him, or by creating them within himself by education and by knowing how to profit by the difficulties encountered.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Never march by flank in front of an army in position. This principle is absolute.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Europe is a molehill. It has never had any great empires, like those of the Orient, numbering six hundred million souls.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

The sentiment of national honor is never more than half extinguished in the French. It takes only a spark to re-kindle it.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Courage cannot be counterfeited. It is one virtue that escapes hypocrisy.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

It is only with prudence, sagacity, and much dexterity that great aims are accomplished, and all obstacles surmounted. Otherwise nothing is accomplished.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

War is a serious game in which a man risks his reputation, his troops, and his country. A sensible man will search himself to know whether or not he is fitted for the trade.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, would be to be a god.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Aristocracy is the spirit of the Old Testament, democracy of the New.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

We frustrate many designs against us by pretending not to see them.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Napoleon (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.