Home > Author > Napoléon Bonaparte
161 " Those who receive the most images into their memories have the most lively imaginations. "
― Napoléon Bonaparte
162 " Men have their virtues and their vices, their heroisms and their perversities; men are neither wholly good nor wholly bad, but possess and practice all that there is of good and bad here below. Such is the general rule. Temperament, education, the accidents of life, are modifying factors. Outside of this, everything is ordered arrangement, everything is chance. Such has been my rule of expectation and it has usually brought me success. "
163 " A commander in chief ought to say to himself several times a day: If the enemy should appear on my front, on my right, on my left, what would I do? And if the question finds him uncertain, he is not well placed, he is not as he should be, and he should remedy it. "
164 " Qu'est ce que l'histoire, sinon une fable sur laquelle tout le monde est d'accord. "
165 " The greater the man, the less is he opinionative, he depends upon events and circumstances. "
166 " The nature of strategy consists of always having, even with a weaker army, more forces at the point of attack or at the point where one is being attacked than the enemy. "
167 " What is a throne? — a bit of wood gilded and covered in velvet. I am the state— I alone am here the representative of the people. Even if I had done wrong you should not have reproached me in public—people wash their dirty linen at home. France has more need of me than I of France. "
168 " Lo imposible es el fantasma de los tímidos y el refugio de los cobardes. "
169 " My maxim was, la carrière est ouverte aux talents, without distinction of birth or fortune. "
170 " The most difficult art is not in the choice of men, but in giving to the men chosen the highest service of which they are capable. "
171 " In war, theory is all right so far as general principles are concerned; but in reducing general principles to practice there will always be danger. Theory and practice are the axis about which the sphere of accomplishment revolves. "
172 " In Love, Victory goes to the man who runs away "
173 " 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. Their usefulness lies in their effect on the course of the campaign, in neutralizing rumors and false reports, in maintaining a good spirit in the camp, and in furnishing matter for camp-fire talk. The printed order of the day should fulfill these different ends. "
174 " Able was I ere I saw Elba "
175 " Gentlemen. If you're going to take Vienna, take it. "
176 " The great mass of society are far from being depraved; for if a large majority were criminal or inclined to break the laws, where would the force or power be to prevent or constrain them? And herein is the real blessing of civilization, because this happy result has its origin in her bosom, growing out of her very nature. "
177 " It is only with prudence, sagacity, and much dexterity that great aims are accomplished, and all obstacles surmounted. Otherwise nothing is accomplished. "
178 " All celebrated people lose dignity upon a closer view "
179 " The great difficulty with politics is, that there are no established principles. "
180 " Only give them history books. Men should read nothing else. "