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A Commander-in-chief Cannot Take As An Excuse For His Mistakes In Warfare An Order Given By His Sovereign Or His Minister When The Person Giving The Order Is Absent From The Field Of Operations And Is Imperfectly Aware Or Wholly Unaware Of The Latest State Of Affairs. It Follows That Any Commander-in-chief Who Undertakes To Carry Out A Plan Which He Considers Defective Is At Fault; He Must Put Forward His Reasons, Insist On The Plan Being Changed, And Finally Tender His Resignation Rather Than Be The Instrument Of His Army's Downfall.

-Napoleon Bonaparte

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A Commander-in-chief Cannot Take

Napoleon Bonaparte

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A Commander-in-chief Cannot Take As An Excuse For His Mistakes In Warfare An Order Given By His Sovereign Or His Minister When The Person Giving The Order Is Absent From The Field Of Operations And Is Imperfectly Aware Or Wholly Unaware Of The Latest State Of Affairs. It Follows That Any Commander-in-chief Who Undertakes To Carry Out A Plan Which He Considers Defective Is At Fault; He Must Put Forward His Reasons, Insist On The Plan Being Changed, And Finally Tender His Resignation Rather Than Be The Instrument Of His Army's Downfall.

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It Is Cowardice To Commit Suicide.

I Saw The Crown Of France Laying On The Ground, So I Picked It Up With My Sword.

Generals Are Not To Be Too Scrupulous.

Vengeance Is Without Foresight.

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Life Is Strewn With So Many Dangers, And Can Be The Source Of So Many Misfortunes, That Death Is Not The Greatest Of Them.

The Confidence With Which A Sovereign Is Invested, Is Solid Only When It Is Sanctioned By The Suffrages Of The People, Who Clothed Him With The Supreme Magistracy.

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One Bad General Is Worth Two Good Ones.

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There Is No Such Thing As Accident; It Is Fate Misnamed.

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Courage Cannot Be Counterfeited. It Is One Virtue That Escapes Hypocrisy.

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Men, In General, Are But Great Children.

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I Do Not Amuse Myself By Thinking Of Dead People.

In War, Men Are Nothing, One Man Is Everything.

It Is Rare That A Legislature Reasons. It Is Too Quickly Impassioned.

Tis A Principle Of War That When You Can Use The Lightning, 'tis Better Than Cannon.

I Base My Calculation On The Expectation That Luck Will Be Against Me.

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The Life Of A Citizen Is The Property Of His Country.

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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Posterity Will Talk Of Washington As The Founder Of A Great Empire, When My Name Shall Be Lost In The Vortex Of Revolution.

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Envy Is A Declaration Of Inferiority.

My Generals Are A Parcel Of Post Inspectors.

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I Have Destroyed The Enemy Merely By Marches.

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Speeches Pass Away, But Acts Remain.

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In Politics Stupidity Is Not A Handicap.

Ability Has Nothing To Do With Opportunity.

Where The Government Is Weak, Military Sway Prevails.

Lies Circle The Earth While Truth Is Still Trying To Put On Its Shoes.

Conquests Will Come And Go But Delambre's Work Will Endure.

The Greatest Ornament Of An Illustrious Life Is Modesty And Humility, Which Go A Great Way In The Character Even Of The Most Exalted Princes.

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Nothing Is More Difficult, And Therefore More Precious, Than To Be Able To Decide.

Let France Have Good Mothers, And She Will Have Good Sons.

The Bullet That Will Kill Me Is Not Yet Cast.

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War Is Cruel To The People, And Terrible To The Conquered.

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A Good Sketch Is Better Than A Long Speech.

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Strategy Is The Art Of Making Use Of Time And Space. I Am Less Concerned About The Later Than The Former. Space We Can Recover, Lost Time Never.

My Enemies Make Appointments At My Tomb.

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An Aristocracy Is The True Support Of A Monarchy.

The First Method Is That Of A Schemer And Leads Only To Mediocre Results; The Other Method Is The Path Of Genius And Changes The Face Of The World.

Pure Politics Is Merely The Calculus Of Combinations And Of Chances.

Do You Know What Is More Hard To Bear Than The Reverses Of Fortune? It Is The Baseness, The Hideous Ingratitude, Of Man.

All Men Of Genius, And All Those Who Have Gained Rank In The Republic Of Letters, Are Brothers, Whatever May Be The Land Of Their Nativity.

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We Frustrate Many Designs Against Us By Pretending Not To See Them.

In Statesmanship There Are Predicaments From Which It Is Impossible To Escape Without Some Wrongdoing.

The Most Constant, The Most Powerful, And The Most Generous Of All My Enemies.

The Bible Is No Mere Book, But A Living Creature, With A Power That Conquers All That Oppose It.

When You Set Out To Take Vienna, Take Vienna.

An Army Marches On Its Stomach.

A Man Made For Public Life And Authority Never Takes Account Of Personalities; He Only Takes Account Of Things, Of Their Weight And Their Conseqences.

The Battlefield Is A Scene Of Constant Chaos. The Winner Will Be The One Who Controls That Chaos, Both His Own And The Enemies.

A Fool Is Only Troublesome, A Pedant Insupportable.

An Empty Throne Always Tempts Me.

Be Successful! I Judge Men Only By The Results Of Their Actions.

Once You Have Made Up Your Mind, Stick To It; There Is No Longer Any 'if' Or 'but'.

Age, Habits Of Business And Experience Have Modified Many Characters.

The Reason I Beat The Austrians Is, They Did Not Known The Value Of Five Minutes

I Am The Signet Which Marks The Page Where The Revolution Has Been Stopped; But When I Die It Will Turn The Page And Resume Its Course.

There Shall Be No Alps.

The Act Of Policing Is, In Order To Punish Less Often, To Punish More Severely.

The Unwilling Soldier Will Do Anything To Fight For A Useless Fabric Piece Of Ribbon.

War Is A Lottery In Which Nations Ought To Risk Nothing But Small Amounts.

Lead The Ideas Of Your Time And They Will Accompany And Support You; Fall Behind Them And They Drag You Along With Them; Oppose Them And They Will Overwhelm You.

You Don't Govern Men Who Don't Have Religion, You Shoot Them.

In War, As In Politics, No Evil - Even If It Is Permissible Under The Rules - Is Excusable Unless It Is Absolutely Necessary. Everything Beyond That Is A Crime.

Charges Of Cavalry Are Equally Useful At The Beginning, The Middle And The End Of A Battle. They Should Be Made Always, If Possible, On The Flanks Of The Infantry, Especially When The Latter Is Engaged In Front.

My Downfall Raises Me To Infinite Heights.

The Torment Of Precautions Often Exceeds The Dangers To Be Avoided. It Is Sometimes Better To Abandon One's Self To Destiny.

It Is Not By Whining That One Carries Out The Job Of King.

Paradise Is A Center Whither The Souls Of All Men Are Proceeding, Each Sect In Its Particular Road.

Impatience Is A Great Obstacle To Success; He Who Treats Everything With Brusqueness Gathers Nothing, Or Only Immature Fruit Which Will Never Ripen.

The Sentiment Of National Honor Is Never More Than Half Extinguished In The French. It Takes Only A Spark To Re-kindle It.

A Man Who Has No Consideration For The Needs Of His Men Ought Never To Be Given Command.

When I Give A Minister An Order, I Leave It To Him To Find The Means To Carry It Out.

Those Who Are Free From Common Prejudices Acquire Others.

Artillery Is More Essential To Cavalry Than To Infantry, Because Cavalry Has No Fire For Its Defence, But Depends On The Sabre.

Insubordination May Only Be The Evidence Of A Strong Mind.

Wherever Flowers Cannot Be Reared, There Man Cannot Live.

Equality Should Be The Chief Basis Of The Education Of Youth.

Ordinarily Men Exercise Their Memory Much More Than Their Judgment.

With Audacity One Can Undertake Anything, But Not Do Everything.

There Is A Joy In Danger.

When Your Enemy Is Doing Something Wrong, Do Not Interrupt Him.

If I Had To Choose A Religion, The Sun As The Universal Giver Of Life Would Be My God.

You Must Not Fear Death, My Lads; Defy Him, And You Drive Him Into The Enemy's Ranks.

There Is Only One Step From The Sublime To The Ridiculous.

Orders And Decorations Are Necessary In Order To Dazzle The People.

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