Napoleon Quotes

Lead the ideas of your time and they will accompany and support you; fall behind them and they drag you along with them; oppose them and they will overwhelm you.

We frustrate many designs against us by pretending not to see them.

Among so many conflicting ideas and so many different perspectives, the honest man is confused and distressed and the skeptic becomes wicked ... Since one must take sides, one might as well choose the side that is victorious, the side which devastates, loots, and burns. Considering the alternative, it is better to eat than to be eaten.

A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.

One is more certain to influence men, to produce more effect on them, by absurdities than by sensible ideas.

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.

In politics nothing is immutable. Events carry within them an invincible power. The unwise destroy themselves in resistance. The skillful accept events, take strong hold of them and direct them.

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

Orders and decorations are necessary in order to dazzle the people.

Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.

It is a mistake, too, to say that the face is the mirror of the soul. The truth is, men are very hard to know, and yet, not to be deceived, we must judge them by their present actions, but for the present only.

What are the conditions that make for the superiority of an army? Its internal organization, military habits in officers and men, the confidence of each in themselves; that is to say, bravery, patience, and all that is contained in the idea of moral means.

There are in the world, two powers. The sword and the spirit. The spirit has always vanquished the sword.

There shall be no Alps.

There is no place in a fanatic's head where reason can enter.