100+ Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes to Inspire Leadership, Strategy, and the Pursuit of Greatness
- August 15, 1769 – May 5, 1821
- French of Italian descent
- French military officer and emperor
- Reorganized Europe after the French Revolution and built the foundations of the legal system in modern Europe
- “One must change one’s tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one’s superiority.”
- “Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.”
- “He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.”
- “The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.”
- “If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.”
- “Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment.”
- “What is history but a fable agreed upon?”
- “You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy’s ranks.”
- “When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.”
- “Medicines are only fit for old people.”
- “There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed.”
- “Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows.”
- “I am the successor, not of Louis XVI, but of Charlemagne.”
- “There are only two forces that unite men – fear and interest.”
- “The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know.”
- “Water, air, and cleanness are the chief articles in my pharmacy.”
- “Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”
- “History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.”
- “Ambition never is in a greater hurry than I; it merely keeps pace with circumstances and with my general way of thinking.”
- “With audacity one can undertake anything, but not do everything.”
- “A leader is a dealer in hope.”
- “When soldiers have been baptized in the fire of a battle-field, they have all one rank in my eyes.”
- “Imagination rules the world.”
- “One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent.”
- “I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.”
- “A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.”
- “Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.”
- “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.”
- “The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.”
- “You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.”
- “The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.”
- “Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.”
- “It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.”
- “The great proof of madness is the disproportion of one’s designs to one’s means.”
- “Ability is nothing without opportunity.”
- “Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.”
- “The battle of Austerlitz is the grandest of all I have fought.”
- “The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it.”
- “A celebrated people lose dignity upon a closer view.”
- “Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.”
- “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
- “A Constitution should be short and obscure.”
- “Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals.”
- “I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies.”
- “Forethought we may have, undoubtedly, but not foresight.”
- “The act of policing is, in order to punish less often, to punish more severely.”
- “If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.”
- “He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.”
- “A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.”
- “An army marches on its stomach.”
- “The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one’s self to destiny.”
- “I have only one counsel for you – be master.”
- “From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.”
- “Women are nothing but machines for producing children.”
- “We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.”
- “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.”
- “I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.”
- “Let the path be open to talent.”
- “A revolution can be neither made nor stopped. The only thing that can be done is for one of several of its children to give it a direction by dint of victories.”
- “All religions have been made by men.”
- “England is a nation of shopkeepers.”
- “A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.”
- “The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.”
- “The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.”
- “A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.”
- “There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.”
- “Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.”
- “Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.”
- “Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.”
- “The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies.”
- “To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.”
- “Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.”
- “Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”
- “The French complain of everything, and always.”
- “Throw off your worries when you throw off your clothes at night.”
- “Respect the burden.”
- “France has more need of me than I have need of France.”
- “The infectiousness of crime is like that of the plague.”
- “Men take only their needs into consideration – never their abilities.”
- “Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self-interest.”
- “There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.”
- “There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time.”
- “Riches do not consist in the possession of treasures, but in the use made of them.”
- “Victory belongs to the most persevering.”
- “I made all my generals out of mud.”
- “Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”
- “It is my wish that my ashes may repose on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people, whom I have loved so well.”
- “A man cannot become an atheist merely by wishing it.”
- “Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”
- “In politics stupidity is not a handicap.”
- “If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.”
- “History is a set of lies agreed upon.”
- “Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.”
- “War is the business of barbarians.”
- “It requires more courage to suffer than to die.”
- “In politics… never retreat, never retract… never admit a mistake.”
- “The army is the true nobility of our country.”
- “If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.”
- “The human race is governed by its imagination.”
- “A true man hates no one.”
- “Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.”
- “The best cure for the body is a quiet mind.”
- “The extent of your consciousness is limited only by your ability to love and to embrace with your love the space around you, and all it contains.”