Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military commander and emperor whose ambition reshaped Europe. His words are sharp, strategic, and often unsettling in their clarity -- covering everything from the value of silence to the fleeting nature of fame.
These quotes fit well in history essays, leadership presentations, strategy discussions, or social media posts with an edge. Browse the full collection below.
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“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
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“Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.”
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“Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”
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“Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.”
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“Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”
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“In politics stupidity is not a handicap.”
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“The best way to keep one's word is not to give it.”
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“Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.”
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“Women are nothing but machines for producing children.”
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“History is a set of lies agreed upon.”
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“A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.”
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“The best cure for the body is a quiet mind.”
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“The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies.”
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“A leader is a dealer in hope.”
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“If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.”
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“Victory belongs to the most persevering.”
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“The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.”
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“If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.”
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“A true man hates no one.”
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“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.”
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“Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.”
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“You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.”
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“There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed.”
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“I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.”
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“Ability is nothing without opportunity.”
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“It requires more courage to suffer than to die.”
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“There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.”
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“Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.”
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“Imagination rules the world.”
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“The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.”
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“Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.”
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“There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.”
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“The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know.”
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“The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.”
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“Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.”
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“Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”
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“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.”
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“From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.”
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“Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.”
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“He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.”
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“An army marches on its stomach.”
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“History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.”
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“Water, air, and cleanness are the chief articles in my pharmacy.”
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“Respect the burden.”
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“The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.”
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“A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.”
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“A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.”
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“Throw off your worries when you throw off your clothes at night.”
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“To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.”
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“He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.”
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“Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows.”
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“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.”
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“A revolution can be neither made nor stopped. The only thing that can be done is for one of several of its children to give it a direction by dint of victories.”
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“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”
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“Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.”
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“One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority.”
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“The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to destiny.”
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“Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment.”
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“France has more need of me than I have need of France.”
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“When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.”
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“I have only one counsel for you - be master.”
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“There are only two forces that unite men - fear and interest.”
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“There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time.”
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“Forethought we may have, undoubtedly, but not foresight.”
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“It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.”
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“If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.”
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“In politics… never retreat, never retract… never admit a mistake.”
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“I am the successor, not of Louis XVI, but of Charlemagne.”
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“Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.”
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“The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.”
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“With audacity one can undertake anything, but not do everything.”
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“Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.”
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“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.”
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“The great proof of madness is the disproportion of one's designs to one's means.”
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“Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals.”
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“Let the path be open to talent.”
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“We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.”
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“The battle of Austerlitz is the grandest of all I have fought.”
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“The human race is governed by its imagination.”
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“The army is the true nobility of our country.”
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“A Constitution should be short and obscure.”
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“If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.”
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“When soldiers have been baptized in the fire of a battle-field, they have all one rank in my eyes.”
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“All religions have been made by men.”
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“You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy's ranks.”
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“One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent.”
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“Riches do not consist in the possession of treasures, but in the use made of them.”
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“The French complain of everything, and always.”
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“It is my wish that my ashes may repose on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people, whom I have loved so well.”
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“Ambition never is in a greater hurry than I; it merely keeps pace with circumstances and with my general way of thinking.”
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“A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.”
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“I made all my generals out of mud.”
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“Men take only their needs into consideration - never their abilities.”
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“A man cannot become an atheist merely by wishing it.”
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“England is a nation of shopkeepers.”
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“In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.”
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“What is history but a fable agreed upon?”
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“The act of policing is, in order to punish less often, to punish more severely.”
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“The infectiousness of crime is like that of the plague.”
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“A celebrated people lose dignity upon a closer view.”
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“War is the business of barbarians.”
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“Medicines are only fit for old people.”
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“Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.”