Napoleon Quotes

When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.

Is mayonnaise an instrument?

To have ultimate victory, you must be ruthless.

There is only one favorable moment in war; talent consists in knowing how to seize it.

Laws which are consistent in theory often prove chaotic in practice.

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.

If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.

The existence of God is attested by everything that appeals to our imagination. And if our eye cannot reach Him it is because He has not permitted our intelligence to go so far.

Well then, I will tell you. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him...

From triumph to downfall is but a step. I have seen a trifle decide the most important issues in the gravest affairs.

The poor man and the beggar are two quite different classes: one commands respect, the other arouses anger.

One must learn to forgive and not to hold a hostile, bitter attitude of mind, which offends those about us and prevents us from enjoying ourselves; one must recognize human shortcomings and adjust himself to them rather than to be constantly finding fault with them.

Maximes et pensées de Napoléon recueillies par J.-L. Gaudy jeune (1838), Pg 49

If the art of war were nothing but the art of avoiding risks, glory would become the prey of mediocre minds.... I have made all the calculations; fate will do the rest.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever