Quotes By Napoleon Bonaparte

A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.

He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.

I have only one counsel for you - be master.

The army is the true nobility of our country.

The best way to keep one's word is not to give it.

Let the path be open to talent.

The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.

Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals.

The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.

What is history but a fable agreed upon?

You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.

There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.

One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority.

Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.

The best cure for the body is a quiet mind.

The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.

England is a nation of shopkeepers.

I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.

Throw off your worries when you throw off your clothes at night.

If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.

Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.

A man cannot become an atheist merely by wishing it.

Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.

Imagination rules the world.

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.

When soldiers have been baptized in the fire of a battle-field, they have all one rank in my eyes.

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.

Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.

One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent.

I made all my generals out of mud.