“Simpletons talk of the past, wise men of the present, and fools of the future.”
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
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Quoted by George Gordon Andrews in Napoleon in Review (1939) http://books.google.com/books?id=hnvRAAAAMAAJ&q="A+cowardly+act+What+do+I+care+about+that+You+may+be+sure+that+I+should+never+fear+to+commit+one+if+it+were+to+my+advantage"&pg=PA8#v=onepage
“In politics nothing is immutable. Events carry within them an invincible power.”
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
Context: 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.
Willis Mason West http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Willis%20Mason%20West%22 in The Story of World Progress (1922), p. 434 http://www.archive.org/details/storyworldprogr00westgoog
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Context: In early life he may have been a sincere republican; but he hated anarchy and disorder, and, before his campaign in Italy was over, he had begun to plan to make himself ruler of France. He worked systematically to transform the people's earlier ardor for liberty into a passion for military glory and plunder.
“Victories will be won, one of these days, without cannon, and without bayonets.”
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
Context: War is becoming an anachronism; if we have battled in every part of the continent it was because two opposing social orders were facing each other, the one which dates from 1789, and the old regime. They could not exist together; the younger devoured the other. I know very well, that, in the final reckoning, it was war that overthrew me, me the representative of the French Revolution, and the instrument of its principles. But no matter! The battle was lost for civilization, and civilization will inevitably take its revenge. There are two systems, the past and the future. The present is only a painful transition. Which must triumph? The future, will it not? Yes indeed, the future! That is, intelligence, industry, and peace. The past was brute force, privilege, and ignorance. Each of our victories was a triumph for the ideas of the Revolution. Victories will be won, one of these days, without cannon, and without bayonets.
“I never was truly my own master but was always ruled by circumstances.”
Conversation with Emmanuel, comte de Las Cases (11 November 1816), Mémorial de Sainte Hélène, v. 4, p. 133 http://books.google.com/books?id=945jAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA133.
Context: I may have had many projects, but I never was free to carry out any of them. It did me little good to be holding the helm; no matter how strong my hands, the sudden and numerous waves were stronger still, and I was wise enough to yield to them rather than resist them obstinately and make the ship founder. Thus I never was truly my own master but was always ruled by circumstances.
“Changing from the defensive to the offensive, is one of the most delicate operations in war.”
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
“If you give me an army of Turks, I can take the whole world hostage.”
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
“Where do you think you are going? Can’t you see that the battle is won? Come on, stand firm!”
During the final stages of the Battle of Lutzen
“Commerce unites men and make them; therefore it is fatal to despotic power.”
Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon's War Maxims: With His Social and Political Thoughts (1804-15), Gale & Polden, (1899) p. 150
As quoted in Memoirs of Count Miot de Melito (1788 - 1815) as translated by Frances Cashel Hoey and John Lillie (1881), Vol. II, p. 94
“Anarchy is the stepping stone to absolute power.”
Source: Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon's War Maxims: With His Social and Political Thoughts (1804-15), Gale & Polden, (1899) p. 148
Cited in De Laugier, Vicissitudes of the Italian people from 1801 to 1815, to. X, Firenze, 1836, p. 43 – Aless. Zanoli, About the Italian army, historical-statistical outline from 1796 to 1814, vol. II, Milano, 1845, p. 145.
“If you make everything difficult, the really hard things seem less so.”
With Napoleon in Russia: The Memoirs of General De Caulaincourt, Duke of Vicenza
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)