Napoleon's Maxims & Quotes

On Himself

  • I am never angry when contradicted, I seek to be enlightened.

  • All men are equal before God: wisdom, talents, and virtue are the only difference between them.

  • I like not your free thinkers, fools only defy mystery.

  • The man born for office and authority, see nobody, he sees only things, their weight and their consequence.

  • I have never found the limit of my capacity for work.

  • We walk faster when we walk alone.

  • Great ambition is the passion of a great character. He who is endowed with it, may perform either very great actions, or very bad ones; all depends upon the principles which direct him.

  • He who hazards nothing, gains nothing.
  • If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.

  • Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.

  • Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.

  • If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.

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

  • They think I am stern, even hardhearted. So much the better-this makes it unnecessary for me to justify my reputation. My firmness is taken for callousness. I shall not complain, since this notion is responsible for the good order that is prevailing, so that there is nothing that needs to be repressed.

  • My motto has always been: A career open to all talents, without distinctions of birth.

  • Different subjects and different affairs are arranged in my head as in a cupboard. When I wish to interrupt one train of thought, I shut that drawer and open another. Do I wish to sleep, I simply close all the drawers and then I am - asleep.

  • I was born and made for work.

  • I have recognised the limits of my eyesight and of my legs, but never the limits of my working power.

  • I have a taste for founding, not for owning.

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

  • I am not moved by the tears of a duchess, but the sufferings of the people touch me.

  • Friendship is only a word, I care for nobody.

  • I would kiss a man's arse if I needed him.

  • Even when I am gone, I shall remain in people's minds the star of their rights, my name will be the war cry of their efforts, the motto of their hopes.

  • We are born, we live, we die among supernatural.

  • I know when it is necessary, how to leave the skin of lion to take one of fox.

  • When I want any, good head work done; I always choose a man, if possible with a long nose.

  • Circumstances? I make circumstances!

  • Be successful! I judge men only by the results of their actions.

  • I like honest men of all colors.

  • I start out by believing the worst.

  • The bullet that will kill me is not yet cast.

  • I have made all the calculations; fate will do the rest.

  • If I had not been born Napoleon, I would have liked to have been born Alexander.

  • What I did is immense. What I had decided to do, and what I had projected were still more so.

  • The word 'impossible' is not in my dictionary.

  • I wished to found a European system, a European Code of Laws, a European judiciary; there would be but one people in Europe.

  • I reign only through the fear I inspire.

  • I should have conquered the world.
 
 
Napoleon Bonaparte
Career Portraits
Quotes Family
Loves Letters
Plots Murdered?
His will Places
   
Era of Napoleon
Powers Opponents
Coalitions Allies
People Timelines
Key sites Shrapnel
   
Warfare
Campaigns Battles
Armies Generals
Marshals Winners
Glossary Medical
Weapons 1812 War
Uniforms Battlefields
   
War at Sea
Naval War Heroes
Artworks Signals
Nelson Trafalgar
   
Maps
Key Maps Peninsula
Animated 1796/1800
1809 Russia
   
French Revolution
Revolution Guillotine
Posters People
   
Art, Film, Games
Education Goya
Sharpe Hornblower
Books Movies
DVDs Music
Wargames Images
Cartoons Caricatures
   
Other
About Us Sources
Awards Sitemap
Links Militaria
Miniatures Reenactors
Forum Quizzes
Home Waterloo Diorama
   
   
Copyright Richard Moore 1999-2017 | Privacy Policy | Contact Us