Top 500 Napoleon Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “It is with artillery that war is made.”

— Napoleon

152. “Great battles are won with artillery.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

155. “In war there is but one favorable moment; the great art is to seize it!”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

158. “In war it is not men, but the man who counts.”

— Napoleon

159. “An empty throne always tempts me.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

161. “You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.”

— Napoleon

162. “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

163. “Mankind’s worst enemy is fear of work.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

168. “Adversity is the midwife of genius.”

— Napoleon

169. “Better to have a known enemy than a forced ally.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

174. “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

175. “The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

177. “He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

181. “The World is not ruined by the wickedness of the wicked, but by the weakness of the good.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

194. “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

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

200. “To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.”

— Napoleon