“A great reserve and severity of manners are necessary for the command of those who are older than ourselves.”

Political Aphorisms, Moral and Philosophical Thoughts (1848)

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 "A great reserve and severity of manners are necessary for the command of those who are older than ourselves." 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

Dante Alighieri photo

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality.”

Henry Powell Spring in 1944; popularized by John F. Kennedy misquoting Dante (24 June 1963) http://www.bartleby.com/73/1211.html. Dante placed those who "non furon ribelli né fur fedeli" [were neither for nor against God] in a special region near the mouth of Hell; the lowest part of Hell, a lake of ice, was for traitors.
According to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx President Kennedy got his facts wrong. Dante never made this statement. The closest to what President Kennedy meant is in the Inferno where the souls in the ante-room of hell, who "lived without disgrace and without praise," and the coward angels, who did not rebel but did not resist the cohorts of Lucifer, are condemned to continually chase a banner that is forever changing course while being stung by wasps and horseflies.
See Canticle I (Inferno), Canto 3, vv 35-42 for the notion of neutrality and where JFK might have paraphrased from.
Misattributed

François-René de Chateaubriand photo

“My downfall made a great noise: those who appeared most satisfied criticized the manner of it.”

Book XXVIII, Ch. 2: The Opposition follows me.
Mémoires d'outre-tombe (1848 – 1850)

William Hazlitt photo

“Those who can command themselves, command others.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

No. 407
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)

Maimónides photo
Sun Tzu photo

“Victory is reserved for those who are willing to pay its price.”

Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty

Attributed to Sun Tzu in multiple books and internet sites, but this text does not appear in The Art of War and seems to be a more recent creation.
Disputed

Yvonne De Carlo photo

“I enjoyed being in The Ten Commandments. That was a great experience—to suddenly become one of those holy people. I was holier than thou.”

Yvonne De Carlo (1922–2007) Canadian-American actress, dancer, and singer

"Yvonne De Carlo Reminds The World There Was Life Before Lily Munster" (1987)

Leonardo Da Vinci photo
Dan Brown photo
James Madison photo
Denis Diderot photo

“Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.”

Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French Enlightenment philosopher and encyclopædist

As quoted in The Golden Treasury of Thought : A Gathering of Quotations from the Best Ancient and Modern Authors (1873) by Theodore Taylor, p. 227

Related topics