Top 500 Napoleon Quotes (2025 Update)
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201. “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

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

— Napoleon

203. “It’s the people who are in the wrong who get angry.”

— Napoleon

204. “Liberty and equality are magical words.”

— Napoleon

205. “Great men grow tired of contentedness.”

— Napoleon

206. “Strangers are just friends waiting to happen. To become a good man, one must have faithful friends, or outright enemies.”

— Napoleon

207. “If I always appear prepared, it is because before entering an undertaking, I have meditated long and have foreseen what might occur. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly and secretly what I should do in circumstances unexpected by others; it is thought and preparation.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

209. “Artillery is more essential to cavalry than to infantry, because cavalry has no fire for its defence, but depends on the sabre.”

— Napoleon

210. “From the sublime to the ridiculous there is but one step.”

— Napoleon

211. “In Russia there are no roads – only areas.”

— Napoleon

212. “Put a rogue in the limelight and he will act like an honest man.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

215. “America is a fortunate country. She grows by the follies of our European nations.”

— Napoleon

216. “The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know.”

— Napoleon

217. “A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.”

— Napoleon

218. “War is the business of barbarians.”

— Napoleon

219. “There are two levers for moving men – interest and fear.”

— Napoleon

220. “A general must be a charlatan.”

— Napoleon

221. “One must learn to forgive and not to hold a hostile, bitter attitude of mind, which offends those about us and prevents us from enjoying ourselves. One must recognize human shortcomings and adjust himself to them rather than to be constantly finding fault with them.”

— Napoleon

222. “Audacity succeeds as often as it fails; in life it has an even chance.”

— Napoleon

223. “Governments keep their promises only when they are forced, or when it is to their advantage to do so.”

— Napoleon

224. “Force is the law of animals, men are ruled by conviction.”

— Napoleon

225. “The process of quitting smoking doesn’t end with the last cigarette. It’s not quitting itself, the real key is staying quit.”

— Napoleon

226. “Go Sir, gallop and don’t forget that the world was made in six days. You can ask me for anything but not time.”

— Napoleon

227. “I am a monarch of God’s creation, and you reptiles of the earth dare not oppose me. I render an account of my government to none save God and Jesus Christ.”

— Napoleon

228. “The best medicine against the grapes of wrath is a whiff of grapeshot.”

— Napoleon

229. “Equality should be the chief basis of the education of youth.”

— Napoleon

230. “History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.”

— Napoleon

231. “The art of choosing men is not nearly so difficult as the art of enabling those chosen to attain their full worth.”

— Napoleon

232. “What is the future? What is the past? What are we? What is the magic fluid that surrounds us and conceals the things we most need to know? We live and die in the midst of marvels.”

— Napoleon

233. “Chess is too difficult to be a game and not serious enough to be a science or an art.”

— Napoleon

234. “I marvel that whereas the ambitious dreams of my self, Caesar, and Alexander should have vanished into thin air, a Judean peasant-Jesus-s hould be able to stretch His hands across the centuries and control the destinies of men and nations.”

— Napoleon

235. “Wherever wood can swim, there I am sure to find this flag of England.”

— Napoleon

236. “If you wage war, do it energetically and with severity. This is the only way to make it shorter and consequently less inhuman.”

— Napoleon

237. “Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals.”

— Napoleon

238. “Surely in a matter of this kind we should endeavor to do something, that we may say that we have not lived in vain, that we may leave some impress of ourselves on the sands of time.”

— Napoleon

239. “We frustrate many designs against us by pretending not to see them.”

— Napoleon

240. “Man is entitled by birthright to a share of the earth’s produce sufficient to fill the needs of his existence.”

— Napoleon

241. “Nothing is more arrogant than the weakness which feels itself supported by power.”

— Napoleon

242. “All the women in the world would not make me lose an hour.”

— Napoleon

243. “Success is the most convincing talker in the world.”

— Napoleon

244. “Which is heavier: a soldier’s pack or a slave’s chains?”

— Napoleon

245. “It is cowardice to commit suicide.”

— Napoleon

246. “I do not believe it is in our nature to love impartially. We deceive ourselves when we think we can love two beings, even our own children, equally. There is always a dominant affection.”

— Napoleon

247. “Religions are all founded on miracles – on things we cannot understand, such as the Trinity. Jesus calls himself the Son of God, and yet is descended from David. I prefer the religion of Mahomet – it is less ridiculous than ours.”

— Napoleon

248. “Friendship is but a name. I love no one.”

— Napoleon

249. “The French complain of everything, and always.”

— Napoleon

250. “A man is known by his conduct to his wife, to his family, and to those under him.”

— Napoleon