Top 500 Napoleon Quotes (2023 Update)
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301. “The Concordat is not the victory of any one party but the consolidation of all.”

— Napoleon

302. “Women are nothing but machines for producing children.”

— Napoleon

303. “They wanted me to be a Washington.”

— Napoleon

304. “Half of the people in the world are below average.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

306. “The great proof of madness is the disproportion of one’s designs to one’s means.”

— Napoleon

307. “To have good soldiers, a nation must always be at war.”

— Napoleon

308. “If I were to give liberty to the press, my power could not last three days.”

— Napoleon

309. “Moses has revealed the existence of God to his nation. Jesus Christ to the Roman world, Muhammad to the old continent...”

— Napoleon

310. “Variety made the Revolution. Liberty was just a pretext.”

— Napoleon

311. “Every beggar shall be arrested. But to arrest a beggar merely in order to put him in jail would be barbarous and absurd. He should be arrested for the sole purpose of teaching him how to earn a living by his work.”

— Napoleon

312. “I am the signet which marks the page where the revolution has been stopped; but when I die it will turn the page and resume its course.”

— Napoleon

313. “When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.”

— Napoleon

314. “Sire, I am my own Rudolph of Hapsburg.”

— Napoleon

315. “Rascality has limits; stupidity has not.”

— Napoleon

316. “Here, Gentlemen, a dog teaches us a lesson in humanity.”

— Napoleon

317. “When you determine to risk a battle, reserve to yourself every possible chance of success, more particularly if you have to deal with an adversary of superior talent, for if you are beaten, even in the midst of your magazines and your communications, woe to the vanquished!”

— Napoleon

318. “From first to last, Jesus is the same; always the same – majestic and simple, infinitely severe and infinitely gentle.”

— Napoleon

319. “Man, not men, is the most important consideration.”

— Napoleon

320. “From triumph to downfall there is but one step. I have noted that, in the most momentous occasions, mere nothings have always decided the outcome of the greatest events.”

— Napoleon

321. “The heart of a statesman should be in his head.”

— Napoleon

322. “I shall be an Attila to Venice.”

— Napoleon

323. “All men of genius, and all those who have gained rank in the republic of letters, are brothers, whatever may be the land of their nativity.”

— Napoleon

324. “Wisdom and policy dictate that we must do as destiny demands and keep peace with the irresistible march of events.”

— Napoleon

325. “The extent of your consciousness is limited only by your ability to love and to embrace with your love the space around you, and all it contains.”

— Napoleon

326. “Lies circle the earth while Truth is still trying to put on its shoes.”

— Napoleon

327. “War justifies everything.”

— Napoleon

328. “A man made for public life and authority never takes account of personalities; he only takes account of things, of their weight and their conseqences.”

— Napoleon

329. “The keys of a fortress are always well worth the retirement of the garrison when it is resolved to yield only on those conditions. On this principle it is always wiser to grant an honorable capitulation to a garrison which has made a vigorous resistance than to risk an assault.”

— Napoleon

330. “A man cannot become an atheist merely by wishing it.”

— Napoleon

331. “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

332. “Unavailable wars are always just.”

— Napoleon

333. “France has more need of me than I have need of France.”

— Napoleon

334. “The Allied Powers having proclaimed that the Emperor Napoleon is the sole obstacle to the re-establishment of peace in Europe, he, faithful to his oath, declares that he is ready to descend from the throne, to quit France, and even to relinquish life, for the good of his country.”

— Napoleon

335. “There is no place in a fanatic’s head where reason can enter.”

— Napoleon

336. “Being in the Tuileries is not everything: what matters is to stay here.”

— Napoleon

337. “Soldiers! Forty centuries behold you!”

— Napoleon

338. “In our time no one has the conception of what is great. It is up to me to show them.”

— Napoleon

339. “It is a mistake, too, to say that the face is the mirror of the soul. The truth is, men are very hard to know, and yet, not to be deceived, we must judge them by their present actions, but for the present only.”

— Napoleon

340. “Clearly, the pleasures wines afford are transitory – but so are those of the ballet, or of a musical performance. Wine is inspiring and adds greatly to the joy of living.”

— Napoleon

341. “It should not be believed that a march of three or four days in the wrong direction can be corrected by a countermarch. As a rule, this is to make two mistakes instead of one.”

— Napoleon

342. “Passionate people invariably deny their anger, and cowards often boast their ignorance of fear.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

344. “Reconnaissance memoranda should always be written in the simplest style and be purely descriptive. They should never stray from their objective by introducing extraneous ideas.”

— Napoleon

345. “Throw off your worries when you throw off your clothes at night.”

— Napoleon

346. “To write history one must be more than a man, since the author who holds the pen of this great justiciary must be free from all preoccupation of interest or vanity.”

— Napoleon

347. “The most constant, the most powerful, and the most generous of all my enemies.”

— Napoleon

348. “A general-in-chief should ask himself several times in the day, What if the enemy were to appear now in my front, or on my right, or my left?”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

350. “Peoples of Egypt, you will be told that I have come to destroy your religion. Do not believe it! Reply that I have come to restore your rights!”

— Napoleon