Top 500 Napoleon Quotes (2023 Update)
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151. “The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one’s self to destiny.”

— Napoleon

152. “One might as well try to charge through a wall.”

— Napoleon

153. “To live, is to suffer; and the honest man is always fighting to be master of his own mind.”

— Napoleon

154. “Impatience is a great obstacle to success; he who treats everything with brusqueness gathers nothing, or only immature fruit which will never ripen.”

— Napoleon

155. “I made all my generals out of mud.”

— Napoleon

156. “God has given me the will and the force to overcome all obstacles.”

— Napoleon

157. “An army’s effectiveness depends on its size, training, experience, and morale, and morale is worth more than any of the other factors combined.”

— Napoleon

158. “To understand the man you have to know what was happening in the world when he was twenty.”

— Napoleon

159. “A man becomes the creature of his uniform.”

— Napoleon

160. “Who saves his country violates no law.”

— Napoleon

161. “Men are ruled by toys.”

— Napoleon

162. “I have fought sixty battles, and I have learnt nothing which I did not know at the beginning.”

— Napoleon

163. “Adversity is the midwife of genius.”

— Napoleon

164. “True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life, in whatever shape they may challenge us to combat.”

— Napoleon

165. “A society without religion is like a vessel without compass.”

— Napoleon

166. “I base my calculation on the expectation that luck will be against me.”

— Napoleon

167. “The hand that gives is among the hand that takes. Money has no fatherland, financiers are without patriotism and without decency, their sole object is gain.”

— Napoleon

168. “An order that can be misunderstood, will be misunderstood.”

— Napoleon

169. “Good intelligence is nine-tenths of any battle.”

— Napoleon

170. “My business is to succeed, and I’m good at it. I create my Iliad by my actions, create it day by day.”

— Napoleon

171. “Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.”

— Napoleon

172. “Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age.”

— Napoleon

173. “Those who failed to oppose me, who readily agreed with me and accepted all my views, were those who did me the most injury.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

175. “Laws which are consistent in theory often prove chaotic in practice.”

— Napoleon

176. “Our hour is marked, and no one can claim a moment of life beyond what fate has predestined.”

— Napoleon

177. “The fool has one great advantage over a man of sense; he is always satisfied with himself.”

— Napoleon

178. “The reason I beat the Austrians is, they did not known the value of five minutes.”

— Napoleon

179. “Conquest has made me what I am, only conquest can maintain me.”

— Napoleon

180. “The advance and perfecting of mathematics are closely joined to the prosperity of the nation.”

— Napoleon

181. “The bullet that will kill me is not yet cast.”

— Napoleon

182. “It is cowardly to commit suicide. The English often kill themselves. It is a malady caused by the humid climate.”

— Napoleon

183. “All great events hang by a single thread. The clever man takes advantage of everything, neglects nothing that may give him some added opportunity; the less clever man, by neglecting one thing, sometimes misses everything.”

— Napoleon

184. “A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.”

— Napoleon

185. “In time of revolution, with perseverance and courage, a soldier should think nothing impossible.”

— Napoleon

186. “Over-preparation is the foe of inspiration.”

— Napoleon

187. “In the eyes of empire builders men are not men but instruments.”

— Napoleon

188. “The sovereignty of the people is inalienable.”

— Napoleon

189. “A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.”

— Napoleon

190. “In war, as in prostitution, amateurs are often better than professionals.”

— Napoleon

191. “The future destiny of a child is always the work of the mother.”

— Napoleon

192. “You write to me that it’s impossible. The word is not French.”

— Napoleon

193. “My success and everything good that I have done, I owe to my mother.”

— Napoleon

194. “The object of war is victory, the object of victory is conquest, and the object of conquest is occupation.”

— Napoleon

195. “The strong are good, only the weak are wicked.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

197. “Do you know what amazes me more than anything else? The impotence of force to organize anything.”

— Napoleon

198. “Oh well, no matter what happens, there’s always death.”

— Napoleon

199. “The purpose of religion is to keep the poor from killing the rich.”

— Napoleon

200. “The transition from the defensive to the offensive is one of the most delicate operations in war.”

— Napoleon