Best quotes by Napoleon Bonaparte

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.

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Every man who is worth thirty millions and is not wedded to them, is dangerous to the government.

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

It must be recognized that the real truths of history are hard to discover. Happily, for the most part, they are rather matters of curiosity than of real importance.

A King should sacrifice the best affections of his heart for the good of his country; no sacrifice should be above his determination.

I am conquered less by fortune than by the egotism and ingratitude of my companions in arms.

Give me enough medals and I’ll win you any war

The first method is that of a schemer and leads only to mediocre results; the other method is the path of genius and changes the face of the world.

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

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

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

It is not necessary to prohibit or encourage oddities of conduct which are not harmful.

Those who failed to oppose me, who readily agreed with me, accepted all my views, and yielded easily to my opinions, were those who did me the most injury, and were my worst enemies, because, by surrendering to me so easily, they encouraged me to go too far... I was then too powerful for any man, except myself, to injure me.

Men are led by trifles.

Against attempts on my life, I trust in my luck, my good genius, and my guards.

If we could read the past histories of all our enemies we would disregard all hostility for them.

He who cannot look over a battlefield with a dry eye, causes the death of many men uselessly.

It is easy to know when a government wishes for peace by observing the character of the person sent to negotiate for it.

There is no Nation however small which had the right to set itself free, that has not rescued itself from the dishonour of obeying the Prince imposed by an enemy in the hour of victory.

To write history one must be more than a man, since the author who holds the pen of this great justiciary must be free from all preoccupation of interest or vanity.

The sovereignty of the people is inalienable.

The fate of a battle is the result of a moment, of a thought: the hostile forces advance with various combinations, they attack each other and fight for a certain time; the critical moment arrives, a mental flash decides, and the least reserve accomplishes the object.

You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her decks? I have no time for such nonsense.

The process of quitting smoking doesn't end with the last cigarette. It's not quitting itself, the real key is staying quit

In these days the invention of printing, and the diffusion of knowledge, render historical calumnies a little less dangerous: truth will always prevail in the long run, but how slow its progress!

Independence, like honor, is a rocky island, without a beach.

I hope before long to press you in my arms and shall shower on you a million burning kisses as under the Equator.

Go Sir, gallop and don't forget that the world was made in six days. You can ask me for anything but not time.

I have come to realise that men are not born to be free.

As for myself, I do not believe that such a person as Jesus Christ ever existed; but as the people are inclined to superstition, it is proper not to oppose them.

A magistrate is not a father; he must be just and severe. Only tyrants are fathers.

With audacity one can undertake anything, but not do everything.

The Emperor died forsaken by all, on this horrible rock. (St. Helena) His death struggle was awful!

England would be better off without Canada; it keeps her in a prepared state for war at a great expense and constant irritation.

For today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology. Where each worker may bloom secure from the pests of contradictory and confusing truths. Our Unification of Thought is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people. With one will. One resolve. One cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death. And we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!

The barbarous custom of having men beaten who are suspected of having important secrets to reveal must be abolished. It has always been recognized that this way of interrogating men, by putting them to torture, produces nothing worthwhile.

From first to last, Jesus is the same; always the same--majestic and simple, infinitely severe and infinitely gentle.

There are two merits that glorify a person: being courageous for a man and being virtuous for a woman. Besides these two, there is another merit that glorifies both man and woman: so much loving the homeland to an extent with being ready to sacrifice his/her life, if needed. Turks are such courageous and virtuous people. That is why you can kill a Turk but you can never defeat them.

It is exceptional and difficult to find in one man all the qualities necessary for a great general.

A celebrated people lose dignity upon a closer view.

A man like me troubles himself little about a million men.

Morality has nothing to do with such a man as I am.

Sometimes a single battle decides everything and sometimes, too, the slightest circumstance decides the issue of a battle. There is a moment in every battle at which the least manoeuvre is decisive and gives superiority, as one drop of water causes overflow.

It is the success which makes great men.

I do not believe it is in our nature to love impartially. We deceive ourselves when we think we can love two beings, even our own children, equally. There is always a dominant affection.

The most insupportable of tyrannies is that of inferiors.

Religions are all founded on miracles - on things we cannot understand, such as the Trinity. Jesus calls himself the Son of God, and yet is descended from David. I prefer the religion of Mahomet - it is less ridiculous than ours.

As to moral courage, I have very rarely met with the two o'clock in the morning kind. I mean unprepared courage, that which is necessary on an unexpected occasion, and which, in spite of the most unforeseen events, leaves full freedom of judgement and decision.

All becomes easy when we follow the current of opinion; it is the ruler of the world.

Do you know what amazes me more than anything else? The impotence of force to organize anything.

Men will risk their lives, even die for ribbons.

It is with artillery that war is made.

You may ask me for anything you like except time.

It is not enough to give orders they must be obeyed.

God! How men of letters are stupid.

The friendship of a great man is a favor of the gods.

You cannot treat with all the world at once.

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

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

Treaties are observed as long as they are in harmony with interests.

Neglect of duty does not cease, by repetition, to be neglect of duty.

It's the unconquerable soul of man, and not the nature of the weapon he uses, that ensures victory

Wine is inspiring and adds greatly to the joy of living.

The implements to him who can handle them.

The policies of all powers are inherent in their geography.

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

The public spirit is in the hands of the man who knows how to make use of it.

Friendship is but a name. I love no one.

When I give a minister an order, I leave it to him to find the means to carry it out.

A portion of the multitude must ever be coerced.

I love a brave soldier who has undergone the baptism of fire.

Conscription is the vitality of a nation, the purification of its morality, and the real foundations of all its habits

Great events ever depend but upon a single hair. The adroit man profits by everything, neglects nothing which can increase his chances; the less adroit, by sometimes disregarding a single chance, fails in everything.

To listen to the interests of all marks an ordinary government; to foresee them marks a great government.

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

You do not get peace by shouting: Peace. Peace is a meaningless word; what we need is a glorious peace.