1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Napoleon I of France

Napoleon I of France Quotes
page 3

Napoléon Bonaparte was a French statesman and military leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. He was Emperor of the French as Napoleon I from 1804 until 1814 and again briefly in 1815 during the Hundred Days. Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, building a large empire that ruled over much of continental Europe before its final collapse in 1815. He is considered one of the greatest commanders in history, and his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleon's political and cultural legacy has endured as one of the most celebrated and controversial leaders in human history.He was born Napoleone Buonaparte in Corsica to a relatively modest Italian family from minor nobility. He was serving as an artillery officer in the French army when the French Revolution erupted in 1789. He rapidly rose through the ranks of the military, seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution and becoming a general at age 24. The French Directory eventually gave him command of the Army of Italy after he suppressed the 13 Vendémiaire revolt against the government from royalist insurgents. At age 26, he began his first military campaign against the Austrians and the Italian monarchs aligned with the Habsburgs—winning virtually every battle, conquering the Italian Peninsula in a year while establishing "sister republics" with local support, and becoming a war hero in France. In 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He orchestrated a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic. After the Peace of Amiens in 1802, Napoleon turned his attention to France's colonies. He sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States, and he attempted to restore slavery to the French Caribbean colonies. However, while he was successful in restoring slavery in the eastern Caribbean, Napoleon failed in his attempts to subdue Saint-Domingue, and the colony that France once proudly boasted of as the "Pearl of the Antilles" became independent as Haiti in 1804. Napoleon's ambition and public approval inspired him to go further, and he became the first Emperor of the French in 1804. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing a Third Coalition by 1805. Napoleon shattered this coalition with decisive victories in the Ulm Campaign and a historic triumph over the Russian Empire and Austrian Empire at the Battle of Austerlitz which led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched his Grande Armée deep into Eastern Europe and annihilated the Russians in June 1807 at the Battle of Friedland. France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. Tilsit signified the high-water mark of the French Empire. In 1809, the Austrians and the British challenged the French again during the War of the Fifth Coalition, but Napoleon solidified his grip over Europe after triumphing at the Battle of Wagram in July.

Napoleon then occupied the Iberian Peninsula, hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, and declared his brother Joseph Bonaparte the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support. The Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, and ended in victory for the Allies against Napoleon. The Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia. The Russians were unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade and routinely violated the Continental System, enticing Napoleon into another war. The French launched a major invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The campaign destroyed Russian cities, but did not yield the decisive victory Napoleon wanted. It resulted in the collapse of the Grande Armée and inspired a renewed push against Napoleon by his enemies. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in the War of the Sixth Coalition against France. A lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, but his tactical victory at the minor Battle of Hanau allowed retreat onto French soil. The Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba off the coast of Tuscany, and the Bourbon dynasty was restored to power. Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition which defeated him at the Battle of Waterloo in June. The British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later at the age of 51.

Napoleon's influence on the modern world brought liberal reforms to the numerous territories that he conquered and controlled, such as the Low Countries, Switzerland, and large parts of modern Italy and Germany. He implemented fundamental liberal policies in France and throughout Western Europe. His Napoleonic Code has influenced the legal systems of more than 70 nations around the world. British historian Andrew Roberts states: "The ideas that underpin our modern world—meritocracy, equality before the law, property rights, religious toleration, modern secular education, sound finances, and so on—were championed, consolidated, codified and geographically extended by Napoleon. To them he added a rational and efficient local administration, an end to rural banditry, the encouragement of science and the arts, the abolition of feudalism and the greatest codification of laws since the fall of the Roman Empire". Wikipedia  

✵ 15. August 1769 – 5. May 1821   •   Other names Bonaparte Napoleon I.
Napoleon I of France photo
Napoleon I of France: 259   quotes 280   likes

Napoleon I of France Quotes

“Greatness is nothing unless it be lasting.”

Napoleon I of France

Political Aphorisms, Moral and Philosophical Thoughts (1848)

“Leave the Artillerymen alone, they are an obstinate lot.”

Napoleon I of France

As quoted in The Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations (1966) by Robert Heinl, Jr.
Attributed

“Whatever shall we do in that remote spot? Well, we will write our memoirs. Work is the scythe of time.”

Napoleon I of France

On board H.M.S. Bellerophon (August 1815)

Time

“Destiny urges me to a goal of which I am ignorant. Until that goal is attained I am invulnerable, unassailable. When Destiny has accomplished her purpose in me, a fly may suffice to destroy me.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Flying

“There is no such thing as an absolute despotism; it is only relative. A man cannot wholly free himself from obligation to his fellows. A sultan who cut off heads from caprice, would quickly lose his own in the same way. Excesses tend to check themselves by reason of their own violence. What the ocean gains in one place it loses in another.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Way

“To listen to the interests of all, marks an ordinary government; to foresee them, marks a great government.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

“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.”

Napoleon I of France

Letter to his brother, as quoted in The Age of Napoleon (2002) by J. Christopher Herold, p. 8

Idea , Victory

“In France, only the impossible is admired.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

“If I had succeeded, I would have been the greatest man known to history.”

Napoleon I of France

As quoted in The Tyrants : 2500 Years of Absolute Power and Corruption (2006) by Clive Foss ISBN 1905204965
Attributed

History

“I do not see in religion the mystery of the incarnation so much as the mystery of the social order. It introduces into the thought of heaven an idea of equalization, which saves the rich from being massacred by the poor.”

Napoleon I of France

Often paraphrased as “Religion keeps the poor from killing the rich.”
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Religion , Idea

“Bonaparte has advanced with great strides, but he will never enter Paris.”

Napoleon I of France

Le Moniteur Universel, March 19, 1815.
About

“Those who are free from common prejudices acquire others.”

Napoleon I of France

Memoirs of Napoleon (1829-1831)

“There are so many laws that no one is safe from hanging.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Law

“The true conquests, the only ones that cause no regret, are those made over ignorance.”

Napoleon I of France

(November 26, 1797) as quoted in Andrew Roberts Napoleon: A Life p. 157

“It is not true that men never change; they change for the worse, as well as for the better. It is not true they are ungrateful; more often the benefactor rates his favors higher than their worth; and often too he does not allow for circumstances. If few men have the moral force to resist impulses, most men do carry within themselves the germs of virtues as well as of vices, of heroism as well as of cowardice. Such is human nature — education and circumstances do the rest.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Men , Education , Nature , Change

“The monster slept at Grenoble.”

Napoleon I of France

Le Moniteur Universel, March 12, 1815.
About

“When you have an enemy in your power, deprive him of the means of ever injuring you.”

Napoleon I of France

Source: Political Aphorisms, Moral and Philosophical Thoughts (1848), p. 30

“You call these baubles, well, it is with baubles that men are led… Do you think that you would be able to make men fight by reasoning? Never. That is only good for the scholar in his study. The soldier needs glory, distinctions, and rewards.”

Napoleon I of France

On awards, as quoted in Mémoires sur le Consulat. 1799 à 1804 (1827) by Antoine-Claire, Comte Thibaudeau. Chez Ponthieu, pp. 83–84. Original: "On appelle cela des hochets; eh bien! c'est avec des hochets que l'on mène les hommes… Croyez-vous que vous feríez battre des hommes par l'analyse? Jamais. Elle n'est bonne que pour le savant dans son cabinet. Il faut au soldat de la gloire, des distinctions, des récomponses."
Attributed

Men , Thinking , Study , Fight

“The best way to keep one's word is not to give it.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Way

“I used to say of him that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men.”

Napoleon I of France

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, spoken statement (2 November 1831), as quoted in Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1886) by Philip Henry Stanhope
About

Men

“To plan to reserve cavalry for the finish of the battle, is to have no conception of the power of combined infantry and cavalry charges, either for attack or for defense.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

“That dependable courage, which in spite of the most sudden circumstances, nevertheless allows freedom of mind, of judgment and of decision, is exceedingly rare.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Courage , Decision , Freedom , Dependency

“I do not believe it is in our nature to love impartially. We deceive ourselves when we think we can love two beings, even our own children, equally. There is always a dominant affection.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Love , Children , Nature , Thinking

“I saw myself founding a religion, marching into Asia riding an elephant, a turban on my head and in my hand the new Koran that I would have composed to suit my needs.”

Napoleon I of France

As quoted in The British in Egypt‎ (1971) by Peter Mansfield, p. 1
Attributed

Religion

“I am a monarch of God's creation, and you reptiles of the earth dare not oppose me. I render an account of my government to none save God and Jesus Christ.”

Napoleon I of France

Addressing members of the Catholic clergy assembled during ‘Bonaparte's Conference with the Catholic and Protestant clergy at Breda,’ May 1, 1810 (originally reported in the Gazette of Dorpt), as quoted in The life of Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of the French: with a preliminary view of the French revolution, Sir Walter Scott, Philadelphia: Leary & Getz, 1857, p. 91 http://books.google.com/books?id=6yEMAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA91&dq=%22you+reptiles+of+the+earth%22&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22you%20reptiles%20of%20the%20earth%22&f=false
Variant translation: God placed me on the throne, and you reptiles of the earth dare oppose me. I owe no account of my administration to the pope,— only to God and Jesus Christ.
As quoted in The Christian Observer, Volume 10, 1861, p. 261 http://books.google.com/books?id=mc8WAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA261&dq=%22you+reptiles+of+the+earth%22&lr=&cd=2#v=onepage&q=%22you%20reptiles%20of%20the%20earth%22&f=false

God , Christ

“Courage cannot be counterfeited. It is one virtue that escapes hypocrisy.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Courage

“Turks can be killed, but they can never be conquered.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

“His Imperial and Royal Majesty entered his palace at the Tuileries last night in the midst of his faithful subjects.”

Napoleon I of France

Le Moniteur Universel, March 22, 1815.
About

Faith , Night

“It is rare that a legislature reasons. It is too quickly impassioned.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

“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.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Idea , Support , Time

“In practical administration, experience is everything.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

“At the battle of Waterloo, when Napoleon's cavalry had charged again and again upon the unbroken squares of British infantry, at last they were giving up the attempt, and going off in disorder, when some of the officers in mere vexation and complete despair fired their pistols at those solid squares.”

Napoleon I of France

Abraham Lincoln, Speech at New Haven, Connecticut https://archive.is/oYxvX (6 March 1860).
About

Despair

“Europe is a molehill. It has never had any great empires, like those of the Orient, numbering six hundred million souls.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Soul

“Hereditary succession to the magistracy is absurd, as it tends to make a property of it; it is incompatible with the sovereignty of the people.”

Napoleon I of France

Source: Political Aphorisms, Moral and Philosophical Thoughts (1848), p. 246

People , Success

“He who cannot look over a battlefield with a dry eye, causes the death of many men uselessly.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Death , Men

“Aristocracy is the spirit of the Old Testament, democracy of the New.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Democracy

“Obedience to public authority ought not to be based either on ignorance or stupidity.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Stupidity

“Morality has nothing to do with such a man as I am.”

Napoleon I of France

As quoted in The Story of World Progress (1922) by Willis Mason West, p. 433
Attributed

“In war, theory is all right so far as general principles are concerned; but in reducing general principles to practice there will always be danger. Theory and practice are the axis about which the sphere of accomplishment revolves.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

War

“At dinner, he told us that he was much better, and we pointed out to him, about this, that, for some time however, he had not been out, and had been working eight, ten, or twelve hours a day. "That is just it," said he: "work is my element; I was born and made for it. I have found the limits of my legs; I have found the limits of my eyes; but I have never been able to find the limits of my labour."”

Napoleon I of France

A dîner, il nous disait qu'il se trouvait beaucoup mieux, et nous lui avons fait observer, à ce sujet, que, depuis quelque temps néanmoins, il ne sortait plus, et travaillat huit, dix, douze heures par jour.
«C'est cela même,» disait-il: «le travail est mon élément; je suis né et construit pour le travail. J'ai connu les limites de mes jambes, j'ai connu les limites de mes yeux; je n'ai jamais pu connaître celles de mon travail.»
Mémorial de Sainte Hélène, Volume 6, p. 272 https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=qSliAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA272
About

Time

“In love the only safety is in flight.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Love

“It is not necessary to prohibit or encourage oddities of conduct which are not harmful.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

“The cannibal has left his lair.”

Napoleon I of France

Le Moniteur Universel, March 9, 1815.
About

“In war, luck is half in everything.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

War

“Men have their virtues and their vices, their heroisms and their perversities; men are neither wholly good nor wholly bad, but possess and practice all that there is of good and bad here below. Such is the general rule. Temperament, education, the accidents of life, are modifying factors. Outside of this, everything is ordered arrangement, everything is chance. Such has been my rule of expectation and it has usually brought me success.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Life , Men , Education , Chance

“The greater the man, the less is he opinionative, he depends upon events and circumstances.”

Napoleon I of France

Source: Political Aphorisms, Moral and Philosophical Thoughts (1848), p. 146

Dependency

“All great events hang by a hair. The man of ability takes advantage of everything and neglects nothing that can give him a chance of success; whilst the less able man sometimes loses everything by neglecting a single one of those chances.”

Napoleon I of France

Letter to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Passariano (26 September 1797), as quoted in Napoleon as a General (1902) by Maximilian Yorck von Wartenburg, p. 269

Chance , Success

“The tyrant has crossed Lyons.”

Napoleon I of France

Le Moniteur Universel, March 13, 1815.
About

“Some revolutions are inevitable. There are moral eruptions, just as the outbreak of volcanoes are physical eruptions. When the chemical combinations which produce them are complete, the volcanic eruptions burst forth, just as revolutions do when the moral factors are in the right state. In order to foresee them the trend of ideas must be understandingly observed.”

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Idea