"Nothing is so contrary to military rules..." - Quote by Napoleon Bonaparte
Nothing is so contrary to military rules as to make the strength of your army known, either in the orders of the day, in proclamations, or in the newspapers.
More by Napoleon Bonaparte
“Republican despotism is more fertile in acts of tyranny, because everyone has a hand in it.”
“The fate of a Nation may sometimes depend upon the position of a fortress.”
“A well-composed song strikes the mind and softens the feelings, and produces a greater effect than a moral work, which convinces our reason, but does not warm our feelings, nor effect the slightest alteration in our habits”
More on Military
“... I think it would be so much better for me to learn something which would be useful to me in the army, as well as affording me exercise and amusement.”
“That's why the army sends all its future generals to what we call "charm school." As soon as you are a general, people think that you know everything. You think yourself that you have become omniscient and omnipotent. Be careful, because people want to do everything they can to please the general, and you need to guard against this.”
“The transition from the defensive to the offensive is one of the most delicate operations in war.”
More on Strategy
“An incessant change of means to attain unalterable ends is always going on; we must take care not to let these sundry means undo eminence in the perspective of our minds; for, since the beginning, there has been an unending cycle of them, and for each its advocates have claimed adoption as the sole solution of successful war.”
“The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.”
“Only when you have got a clear statement of what you want to achieve, do you ask yourself how you are going to achieve it. In the military we are taught never to go for a single answer, no matter how obvious that might be.”