NAPOLEON BONAPARTE QUOTES

French military commander & political leader (1769-1821)

I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

attributed, The Dance of Life


We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

The Table Talk and Opinions of Napoleon Bonaparte


Independence, like honor, is a rocky island without a beach.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

attributed, Day's Collacon


Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

attributed, Napoleon in His Own Words


Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE


The greater the man, the less is he opinionative, he depends upon events and circumstances.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

attributed, Political Aphorisms, Moral and Philosophical Thoughts


Send me 300 francs; that sum will enable me to go to Paris. There, at least, one can cut a figure and surmount obstacles. Everything tells me I shall succeed. Will you prevent me from doing so for the want of 100 crowns?

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

letter to his uncle, June 1791


Victory belongs to the most persevering.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

attributed, Excellent Quotations for Home and School


The most dangerous moment comes with victory.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

attributed, Your Mind Power Unleashed


If I had to have a religion, I should adore the sun, for it is the sun that fertilizes everything.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

conversation related by Las Cases, The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection from His Written and Spoken Words


All systems of morality are fine. The gospel alone has exhibited a complete assemblage of the principles of morality, divested of all absurdity. It is not composed, like your creed, of a few common-place sentences put into bad verse. Do you wish to see that which is really sublime? Repeat the Lord's Prayer.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers


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 BONAPARTE

attributed, Napoleon Bonaparte in Russia


It requires more courage to suffer than to die.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

attributed, The St. Helena Journal of General Baron Gourgaud, 1815-1818: Being a Diary Written at St. Helena During a Part of Napoleon's Captivity


A leader is a dealer in hope.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

attributed, And I Quote


Necessity dominates inclination, will, and right.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

attributed, Napoleon: In His Own Words


All celebrated people lose dignity upon close inspection.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE


Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

attributed, Forty Thousand Quotations, Prose and Poetical