“From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.”

Speech to his troops in Egypt (21 July 1798) Variant translation: "Soldiers, from the summit of yonder pyramids forty centuries look down upon you...". Published in the autobiography of French general Eugène de Beauharnais.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us." by Napoleon I of France?
Napoleon I of France photo
Napoleon I of France 259
French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French 1769–1821

Related quotes

Thales photo

“Placing your stick at the end of the shadow of the pyramid, you made by the sun's rays two triangles, and so proved that the pyramid [height] was to the stick [height] as the shadow of the pyramid to the shadow of the stick.”

Thales (-624–-547 BC) ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician

W. W. Rouse Ball, A Short Account of the History of Mathematics (1893, 1925)

James Macpherson photo

“I look down from my height on nations
And they become ashes before me.”

James Macpherson (1736–1796) Scottish writer, poet, translator, and politician

"Carric", quoted in Thoreau, "Life Without Principle"
The Poems of Ossian

Seneca the Younger photo

“But he has no fear; unconquered he looks down from a lofty height upon his sufferings.”

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXXV: On Some Vain Syllogisms

Eddie Griffin photo
Will Cuppy photo

“The fact is that building a pyramid is fairly easy, aside from the lifting. You just pile up stones in receding layers, placing one layer carefully upon another, and pretty soon you have a pyramid. You can't help it. In other words, it is not in the nature of a pyramid to fall down.”

Will Cuppy (1884–1949) American writer

Footnote: It probably could not fall down if it tried.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950), Part I: It Seems There Were Two Egyptians, Cheops, or Khufu

Empedocles photo

“From such honor and such a height of fortune am I, thus fallen to earth, cast down amongst mortals.”

Empedocles (-490–-430 BC) ancient Greek philosopher

fr. 119
Purifications

F. Scott Fitzgerald photo
Woody Allen photo
Michael Stevens (educator) photo

“The pyramids of Giza were as old to the ancient Romans, as the ancient Romans are to us.”

Michael Stevens (educator) (1986) Internet personality

"Our Narrow Slice", Vsauce (8 October 2013) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNLdblFQqsw

Related topics