Emperor Quotes

“You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy's ranks.”

“Music, of all the liberal arts, has the greatest influence over the passions, and it is that to which the legislator ought to give the greatest encouragement.”

“This soldier, I realized, must have had friends at home and in his regiment; yet he lay there deserted by all except his dog. I looked on, unmoved, at battles which decided the future of nations. Tearless, I had given orders which brought death to thousands. Yet here I was stirred, profoundly stirred, stirred to tears. And by what? By the grief of one dog. Napoleon Bonaparte, on finding a dog beside the body of his dead master, licking his face and howling, on a moonlit field after a battle. Napoleon was haunted by this scene until his own death.”

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

“Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.”

“The superior man is never in anyone's way.”

“In war it is not men, but the man who counts.”

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

“Parties weaken themselves by their fear of capable men.”

“One must learn to forgive and not to hold a hostile, bitter attitude of mind, which offends those about us and prevents us from enjoying ourselves. One must recognize human shortcomings and adjust himself to them rather than to be constantly finding fault with them.”

“All generals, officers, and soldiers who capitulate in battle to save their own lives should be decimated.”

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

“I have come to realise that men are not born to be free.”

“If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.”

“Love is the idler's occupation, the warrior's relaxation, and the sovereign's ruination.”

“Order marches with weighty and measured strides. Disorder is always in a hurry.”

“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.”

“Riches do not consist in the possession of treasures, but in the use made of them.”

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

“Collective crimes incriminate no one.”

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

“I closed the gulf of anarchy and brought order out of chaos. I rewarded merit regardless of birth or wealth, wherever I found it. I abolished feudalism and restored equality to all regardless of religion and before the law. I fought the decrepit monarchies of the Old Regime because the alternative was the destruction of all this. I purified the Revolution.”

“It is not necessary to bury the truth. It is sufficient merely to delay it until nobody cares.”

“The worse the troops the greater the need of artillery.”

“A fool is only troublesome, a pedant insupportable.”