Top 500 Napoleon Quotes (2024 Update)
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351. “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

352. “War must be made as intense and awful as possible in order to make it short, and thus to diminish its horrors.”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

361. “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

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

365. “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

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

368. “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

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

371. “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

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

— Napoleon

373. “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

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

379. “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

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

— Napoleon

381. “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

382. “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

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— 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. “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

389. “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

390. “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

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

— Napoleon

392. “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

393. “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

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

— Napoleon

395. “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

396. “Soldiers! Forty centuries behold you!”

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

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

— Napoleon

399. “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

400. “Unavailable wars are always just.”

— Napoleon