Top 500 Napoleon Quotes (2023 Update)
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451. “The Mohammedan religion is the finest of all.”

— Napoleon

452. “To extraordinary circumstance we must apply extraordinary remedies.”

— Napoleon

453. “What my enemies call a general peace is my destruction. What I call peace is merely the disarmament of my enemies. Am I not more moderate than they?”

— Napoleon

454. “Whatever misanthropists may say, ingrates and the perverse are exceptions in the human species.”

— Napoleon

455. “An aristocracy is the true support of a monarchy.”

— Napoleon

456. “The heart may be broken, and the soul remain unshaken.”

— Napoleon

457. “How can you have order in a state without religion? For, when one man is dying of hunger near another who is ill of surfeit, he cannot resign himself to this difference unless there is an authority which declares ‘God wills it thus.’ Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.”

— Napoleon

458. “A revolution can be neither made nor stopped. The only thing that can be done is for one of several of its children to give it a direction by dint of victories.”

— Napoleon

459. “The bayonet has always been the weapon of the brave and the chief tool of victory.”

— Napoleon

460. “A people which is able to say everything becomes able to do everything.”

— Napoleon

461. “Music, of all the liberal arts, has the greatest influence over the passions, and it is that to which the legislator ought to give the greatest encouragement.”

— Napoleon

462. “When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation.”

— Napoleon

463. “The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.”

— Napoleon

464. “We must serve the people worthily, and not occupy ourselves in trying to please them. The best way, to gain their affections is to do them good.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

466. “The policies of all powers are inherent in their geography.”

— Napoleon

467. “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.”

— Napoleon

468. “In war, as in love, we must come into contact before we triumph.”

— Napoleon

469. “I believe love to be hurtful to society, and to the individual happiness of men. I believe, in short, that love does more harm than good.”

— Napoleon

470. “There are two kinds of fidelity, that of dogs and that of cats; you, gentleman, have the fidelity of cats who never leave the house.”

— Napoleon

471. “A Constitution should be short and obscure.”

— Napoleon

472. “I am conquered less by fortune than by the egotism and ingratitude of my companions in arms.”

— Napoleon

473. “The barbarous custom of having men beaten who are suspected of having important secrets to reveal must be abolished. It has always been recognized that this way of interrogating men, by putting them to torture, produces nothing worthwhile.”

— Napoleon

474. “War is cruel to the people, and terrible to the conquered.”

— Napoleon

475. “Public instruction should be the first object of government.”

— Napoleon

476. “When soldiers have been baptized in the fire of a battle-field, they have all one rank in my eyes.”

— Napoleon

477. “Posterity will talk of Washington as the founder of a great empire, when my name shall be lost in the vortex of revolution.”

— Napoleon

478. “Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.”

— Napoleon

479. “If fifty thousand men were to die for the good of the State, I certainly would weep for them, but political necessity comes before everything else.”

— Napoleon

480. “For the stability of the Government, the people should have a considerable voice in the elections.”

— Napoleon

481. “It would be a joke if the conduct of the victor had to be justified to the vanquished.”

— Napoleon

482. “Democracy, if it is reasonable, limits itself to giving everyone an equal opportunity to compete and to obtain.”

— Napoleon

483. “The infectiousness of crime is like that of the plague.”

— Napoleon

484. “Forethought we may have, undoubtedly, but not foresight.”

— Napoleon

485. “Never lose sight of this maxim, that you should establish your cantonments at the most distant and best protected point from the enemy, especially where a surprise is possible. By this means you will have time to unite all your forces before he can attack you.”

— Napoleon

486. “Charges of cavalry are equally useful at the beginning, the middle and the end of a battle. They should be made always, if possible, on the flanks of the infantry, especially when the latter is engaged in front.”

— Napoleon

487. “It is often in the audacity, in the steadfastness, of the general that the safety and the conservation of his men is found.”

— Napoleon

488. “Character is victory organized.”

— Napoleon

489. “When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.”

— Napoleon

490. “International incidents must not be allowed to shape foreign policy, foreign policy must shape the incidents.”

— Napoleon

491. “Man loves the marvelous. It has an irresistible charm for him. He is always ready to leave that with which he is familiar to pursue vain inventions. He lends himself to his own deception.”

— Napoleon

492. “In war, as in politics, no evil – even if it is permissible under the rules – is excusable unless it is absolutely necessary. Everything beyond that is a crime.”

— Napoleon

493. “He who is unmoved by tears has no heart.”

— Napoleon

494. “The greatest general is he who makes the fewest mistakes.”

— Napoleon

495. “The fate of a battle is the result of a moment, of a thought: the hostile forces advance with various combinations, they attack each other and fight for a certain time; the critical moment arrives, a mental flash decides, and the least reserve accomplishes the object.”

— Napoleon

496. “What is a throne? – a bit of wood gilded and covered in velvet. I am the state- I alone am here the representative of the people. Even if I had done wrong you should not have reproached me in public – people wash their dirty linen at home. France has more need of me than I of France.”

— Napoleon

497. “All generals, officers, and soldiers who capitulate in battle to save their own lives should be decimated.”

— Napoleon

498. “An Emperor confides in national soldiers, not in mercenaries.”

— Napoleon

499. “History paints the human heart.”

— Napoleon

500. “It is an ambassador’s duty to stand up for his nation’s foreign policy in any era and under any government whatsoever. Ambassadors are, in the full meaning of the term, titled spies.”

— Napoleon