Napoleon Quotes

It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or do in a circumstance unexpected by other people: it is reflection, it is meditation.

If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.

My waking thoughts are all of thee. Your portrait and the remembrance of last night's delirium have robbed my senses of repose. Sweet and incomparable Josephine, what an extraordinary influence you have over my heart. Are you vexed? Do I see you sad? Are you ill at ease? My soul is broken with grief, and there is no rest for your lover.

Qu'est-ce qu'un trône? Un morceau de bois recouvert de velours; dans la langue politique, le trône c'est moi.

siam forti quando siamo risoluti e pronti a morire

The superior man is never in anyone's way.

A Government protected by foreigners will never be accepted by a free people.

The moral is to the physical as three is to one

To understand the man you have to know what was happening in the world when he was twenty.

The praises of enemies are always to be suspected. A man of honor will not permit himself to be flattered by them, except when they are given after the cessation of hostilities.

Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.

The laws of circumstance are abolished by new circumstances.

Men of learning in Milan have not enjoyed proper respect. They hid themselves in their laboratories and thought themselves lucky if . . . priests left them alone. All is changed today. Thought in Italy is free. Inquisition, intolerance, despots have vanished. I invite scholars to meet and propose what must be done to give science and the arts a new flowering.

The reading of history very soon made me feel that I was capable of achieving as much as the men who are placed in the highest ranks of our annals.

Man loves the marvelous. It has an irresistible charm for him. He is always ready to leave that with which he is familiar to pursue vain inventions. He lends himself to his own deception.