Top 500 Napoleon Quotes (2025 Update)
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351. “Half of the people in the world are below average.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

353. “It is neither holy, Roman or an empire.”

— Napoleon

354. “Love is the occupation of the idle man, the amusement of a busy one, and the shipwreck of a sovereign.”

— Napoleon

355. “Public morals are natural complement of all laws they are by themselves an entire code.”

— Napoleon

356. “The allies we gain by victory will turn against us upon the bare whisper of our defeat.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

358. “Good infantry is without doubt the sinews of an army; but if it has to fight a long time against very superior artillery, it will become demoralized and will be destroyed.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

360. “Water, air, and cleanness are the chief articles in my pharmacy.”

— Napoleon

361. “The Concordat is not the victory of any one party but the consolidation of all.”

— Napoleon

362. “Those who are free from common prejudices acquire others.”

— Napoleon

363. “I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

365. “Those who have changed the universe have never done it by changing officials, but always by inspiring the people.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

368. “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

369. “The Mohammedan religion is the finest of all.”

— Napoleon

370. “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

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

— Napoleon

372. “The art of war is to gain time when your strength is inferior.”

— Napoleon

373. “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

374. “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

375. “The only one who is wiser than anyone is everyone.”

— Napoleon

376. “I would rather suffer with coffee than be senseless.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

378. “I hope before long to press you in my arms and shall shower on you a million burning kisses as under the Equator.”

— Napoleon

379. “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

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

— Napoleon

381. “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

386. “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

387. “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

388. “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

389. “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

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

— Napoleon

391. “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

392. “In a great nation, the majority are incapable of judging wisely of things.”

— Napoleon

393. “Let France have good mothers, and she will have good sons.”

— Napoleon

394. “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

395. “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

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

398. “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

399. “To a father who loves his children victor has no charms. When the heart speaks, glory itself is an illusion.”

— Napoleon

400. “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