Best quotes by Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte
French military and political leader
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. He was the de facto leader of the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814 and again in 1815. Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, building a large empire that ruled over continental Europe before its final collapse in 1815. He was one of the greatest military commanders in history, and his wars and campaigns are studied in military schools worldwide. Napoleon's political and cultural legacy has endured, and he has been one of the most celebrated and controversial leaders in world history.
Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica not long after its annexation by the Kingdom of France, and his family "occupied that social penumbra encompassing the haute bourgeoisie and the very minor nobility." He supported the French Revolution in 1789 while serving in the French army, and tried to spread its ideals to his native Corsica. He rose rapidly in the Army after he saved the governing French Directory by firing on royalist insurgents. In April 1796, he began his first military campaign against the Austrians and their Italian allies, scoring a series of decisive victories and becoming a national hero. Two years later, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing the War of the Third Coalition by 1805. Napoleon shattered this coalition with decisive victories in the Ulm Campaign, and a historic triumph at the Battle of Austerlitz, which led to the dissolving of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly knocked out Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched the Grande Armée deep into Eastern Europe, annihilating the Russians in June 1807 at Friedland, and forcing the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to accept the Treaties of Tilsit. Two years later, the Austrians challenged the French again during the War of the Fifth Coalition, but Napoleon solidified his grip over Europe after triumphing at the Battle of Wagram.
Hoping to extend the Continental System (his embargo against Britain), Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support in the Peninsular War, which lasted six years, featured brutal guerrilla warfare, and culminated in a defeat for Napoleon's marshals. Napoleon launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the catastrophic retreat of Napoleon's Grande Armée and encouraged his enemies. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France. A chaotic military campaign culminated in a large coalition army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813. The coalition invaded France and captured Paris, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April 1814. He was exiled to the island of Elba, between Corsica and Italy. Meanwhile, in France, the Bourbons were restored to power. However, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France, "without spilling a drop of blood" as he wished. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which ultimately defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. The British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died in 1821 at the age of 51. Napoleon had an extensive impact on the modern world, bringing liberal reforms to the numerous territories that he conquered and controlled, especially the Low Countries, Switzerland, and large parts of modern Italy and Germany. He implemented fundamental liberal policies in France and throughout Western Europe.
Napoleon Bonaparte quotes by category:
While I live I will never resort to irredeemable paper.
France will always be a great nation.
Artillery is more essential to cavalry than to infantry, because cavalry has no fire for its defence, but depends on the sabre.
My generals are a parcel of post inspectors.
Whatever misanthropists may say, ingrates and the perverse are exceptions in the human species.
Muhammad was a great man, an intrepid soldier; with a handful of men he triumphed at the battle of Bender (sic); a great captain, eloquent, a great man of state, he revived his fatherland and created a new people and a new power in the middle of Arabia.
A new-born Government must shine and astonish - the moment it loses its éclat it falls.
Tragedy warms the soul, elevates the heart, can and ought to create heroes. In this sense, perhaps, France owes a part of her great actions to Corneille.
You cannot drag a man's conscience before any tribunal, and no one is answerable for his religious opinions to any power on earth.
Jesus Chris was more than man.
Not one cent should be raised unless it is in accord with the law.
I am a soldier and accustomed to risking my life every day. I am full of the fire of youth; I cannot act with the restraint of an accomplished diplomat.
A victorious general must know how to employ severity, justness, and mildness by turns, if he would allay sedition or prevent it.
Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age.
Military despotism represses generous sentiments, priestly tyranny stifles them.
A man occupied with public or other important business cannot, and need not, attend to spelling.
The true policy of government is to make use of aristocracy, but under the forms and in the spirit of democracy.
Man, not men, is the most important consideration.
One might as well try to charge through a wall.
Victory and disaster establish indestructible bonds between armies and their commanders.
Patriotism is a word which represents a noble idea.
War is like government, a matter of tact.
What a solace Christianity must be to one who has an undoubted conviction of its truth!
Unity of command is essential to the economy of time. Warfare in the field was like a siege: by directing all one's force to a single point a breach might be made, and the equilibrium of opposition destroyed.
The confidence with which a Sovereign is invested, is solid only when it is sanctioned by the suffrages of the people, who clothed him with the supreme magistracy.
A great reserve and severity of manners are necessary for the command of those who are older than ourselves.
Fanaticism must be put to sleep before it can be eradicated.
Whatever may be the position in life of a parent, it is his duty to share his crust with his children. If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.
The word impossible is not French.
I may have had many projects, but I never was free to carry out any of them.
Between a battle lost and a battle won, the distance is immense and there stand empires.
In politics, an absurdity in public business is going into it.
Good infantry is without doubt the sinews of an army; but if it has to fight a long time against very superior artillery, it will become demoralized and will be destroyed.
It is not set speeches at the moment of battle that render soldiers brave.
Cavalry is useful before, during, and after the battle.
An army travels on its stomach. Soup makes the soldier.
An urgent missive sent to Josephine Home in three days. Don't wash.
Reprisals are but a sad resource.
Sire, I am my own Rudolph of Hapsburg.
Revolutions are good times for soldiers of talent and courage.
The Concordat is not the victory of any one party but the consolidation of all.
Pure politics is merely the calculus of combinations and of chances.
Timid and cowardly soldiers cause the loss of a nation's independence; but pusillanimous magistrates destroy the empire of the laws, the rights of the throne, and even social order itself.
A form of government that is not the result of a long sequence of shared experiences, efforts, and endeavors can never take root.
An Emperor confides in national soldiers, not in mercenaries.
The admiral needs only one science, that of navigation. The general needs all the sciences.
Of all the peoples of Europe, Spaniards disgust me the least.
A constitution should be framed so as not to impede the action of government, nor force the government to its violation.
A great European federative system alone can be favourable to the development of civilisation.
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.
Public esteem is the recompense of honest men.
In Russia there are no roads - only areas.
Keep a good table and attend to the ladies.
One must indeed be ignorant of the methods of genius to suppose that it allows itself to be cramped by forms. Forms are for mediocrity, and it is fortunate that mediocrity can act only according to routine. Ability takes its flight unhindered.
Audacity succeeds as often as it fails; in life it has an even chance.
My star was fading, I felt the reins slipping out of my grasp, and could do nothing to stop it.
Oh Man, Man. How despicable in slavery, how great when fired with the love of freedom!
Public instruction should be the first object of government.
For my part, it is not the mystery of the incarnation which I discover in religion, but the mystery of social order, which associates with heaven that idea of equality which prevents the rich from destroying the poor
I make my battle plans from the spirit of my sleeping soldiers
Europe is a molehill. All great empires and revolutions have been on the Orient; six hundred millions live there.
From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.
A book in which there were no lies would be a curiosity.
I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle this matter by lunch time.
Incidents should not govern policy; but, policy incidents.
I have never loved anyone for love's sake except, perhaps, Josephine - a little.
Posterity alone rightly judges kings. Posterity alone has the right to accord or withhold honors.
Immortality is the best recollection one leaves.
When I want any, good head work done; I always choose a man, if possible with a long nose.
Man is entitled by birthright to a share of the earth's produce sufficient to fill the needs of his existence.
History is a myth that men agree to believe.
Two armies are two bodies which meet and try to frighten each other.
Policemen and prisons ought never to be the means used to bring men back to the practice of religion.
To a father who loves his children victor has no charms. When the heart speaks, glory itself is an illusion.
I am a monarch of God's creation, and you reptiles of the earth dare not oppose me. I render an account of my government to none save God and Jesus Christ.