Skip to content

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.

Another quote →

Source and credibility

Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: Letter to Sheikh El-Messiri (28 August 1798); published in Correspondance Napoleon edited by Henri Plon (1861), Vol.4, No. 3148, p. 420
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

More by Napoleon

Necessity dominates inclination, will, and right.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

The great art of governing consists in not letting men grow old in their jobs.

When you have an enemy in your power, deprive him of the means of ever injuring you.

Political Aphorisms, Moral and Philosophical Thoughts (1848)

Commerce unites men and make them; therefore it is fatal to despotic power.

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

Political Aphorisms, Moral and Philosophical Thoughts (1848)

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.

Political Aphorisms, Moral and Philosophical Thoughts (1848)

In practical administration, experience is everything.

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

What then is, generally speaking, the truth of history? A fable agreed upon.

All Napoleon quotes →

Topics

More quotes by Napoleon

I never was truly my own master but was always ruled by circumstances.

From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step.

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

Political Aphorisms, Moral and Philosophical Thoughts (1848)

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

Political Aphorisms, Moral and Philosophical Thoughts (1848)

There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.

All Napoleon quotes →

You may also like

A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love (1973)

From now on, everything in life will appear blurry to me. What’s the point of wiping my glasses when my vision has already left me?"

Sanu Sharma

You can never plan the future by the past.

Edmund Burke A Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791)

Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal now does always last.

Abraham Cowley Poems (1656)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Napoleon (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.