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A Cowardly Act! What Do I Care About That? You May Be Sure That I Should Never Fear To Commit One If It Were To My Advantage.

-Napoleon Bonaparte

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A Cowardly Act! What

Napoleon Bonaparte

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A Cowardly Act! What Do I Care About That? You May Be Sure That I Should Never Fear To Commit One If It Were To My Advantage.

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Never Tell Your Enemy He Is Doing The Wrong Thing.

Many A One Commits A Reprehensible Action, Who Is At Bottom An Honourable Man, Because Man Seldom Acts Upon Natural Impulse, But From Some Secret Passion Of The Moment Which Lies Hidden And Concealed Within The Narrowest Folds Of His Heart.

All Italians Are Plunderers.

All The Scholastic Scaffolding Falls, As A Ruined Edifice, Before A Single Word: Faith.

There Is No Place In A Fanatic's Head Where Reason Can Enter.

When People Cease To Complain, They Cease To Think.

We Live And Die In The Midst Of Marvels.

In My Youth I, Too, Entertained Some Illusions; But I Soon Recovered From Them.

Parties Weaken Themselves By Their Fear Of Capable Men.

Great Men Are Never Cruel Without Necessity.

Four Hostile Newspapers Are More To Be Feared Than A Thousand Bayonets.

A Magistrate Is Not A Father; He Must Be Just And Severe. Only Tyrants Are Fathers.

There Is No Such Thing As An Accident, Only A Failure To Recognise The Hand Of Fate

Being In The Tuileries Is Not Everything: What Matters Is To Stay Here.

Water, Air, And Cleanness Are The Chief Articles In My Pharmacy.

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.

The Only Victories Which Leave No Regret Are Those Which Are Gained Over Ignorance.

As A Rule It Is Circumstances That Make Men.

The Greater The Man, The Less Is He Opinionative, He Depends Upon Events And Circumstances.

One Might As Well Try To Charge Through A Wall.

Collective Crimes Incriminate No One.

I Have Destroyed The Enemy Merely By Marches.

The Transition From The Defensive To The Offensive Is One Of The Most Delicate Operations In War.

A Revolution Is An Idea Which Has Found Its Bayonets.

Lack Is More In Means, Than In Principles.

A Great European Federative System Alone Can Be Favourable To The Development Of Civilisation.

The Art Of Choosing Men Is Not Nearly So Difficult As The Art Of Enabling Those Chosen To Attain Their Full Worth.

Rascality Has Limits; Stupidity Has Not.

The First Virtue In A Soldier Is Endurance Of Fatigue; Courage Is Only The Second Virtue.

Between A Battle Lost And A Battle Won, The Distance Is Immense And There Stand Empires.

I Hope Before Long To Press You In My Arms And Shall Shower On You A Million Burning Kisses As Under The Equator.

France Is Invaded; I Am Leaving To Take Command Of My Troops, And, With God's Help And Their Valor, I Hope Soon To Drive The Enemy Beyond The Frontier.

Kiss The Feet Of Popes Provided Their Hands Are Tied.

I Tell You Wellington Is A Bad General, The English Are Bad Soldiers; We Will Settle This Matter By Lunch Time.

Public Instruction Should Be The First Object Of Government.

The Law, That Is What Makes Men Stay Honest.

Who Saves His Country Violates No Law.

The Jews Are The Master Robbers Of The Modern Age.

It Strengthens The Bonds Between Nations To Have The Same Civil Laws And The Same Monetary System.

Monetary System

A Book In Which There Were No Lies Would Be A Curiosity.

France Has More Need Of Me Than I Have Need Of France.

He That Makes War Without Many Mistakes Has Not Made War Very Long.

Die Young, And I Shall Accept Your Death-but Not If You Have Lived Without Glory, Without Being Useful To Your Country, Without Leaving A Trace Of Your Existence: For That Is Not To Have Lived At All.

Man Is Entitled By Birthright To A Share Of The Earth's Produce Sufficient To Fill The Needs Of His Existence.

How Many Things Apparently Impossible Have Nevertheless Been Performed By Resolute Men Who Had No Alternative But Death.

I See Only My Objective - The Obstacles Must Give Way.

I Want The Whole Of Europe To Have One Currency; It Will Make Trading Much Easier.

A General-in-chief Should Ask Himself Several Times In The Day, What If The Enemy Were To Appear Now In My Front, Or On My Right, Or My Left?

A Journalist Is A Grumbler, A Censurer, A Giver Of Advice, A Regent Of Sovereigns, A Tutor Of Nations. Four Hostile Newspapers Are More To Be Feared Than A Thousand Bayonets.

A Man Will Fight Harder For His Interests Than For His Rights. Men Are Moved By Only Two Mechanisms: Fear And Self-interest. Victory Belongs To The Most Persevering.

Anarchy Is The Stepping Stone To Absolute Power.

The Man Fitted For Affairs And Authority Never Considers Individuals, But Things And Their Consequences.

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

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 An Ambassador's Duty To Stand Up For His Nation's Foreign Policy In Any Era And Under Any Government Whatsoever. Ambassadors Are, In The Full Meaning Of The Term, Titled Spies.

My Decision To Destroy The Authority Of The Blacks In Saint Domingue (haiti) Is Not So Much Based On Considerations Of Commerce And Money, As On The Need To Block For Ever The March Of The Blacks In The World.

The Poor Man Commands Respect; The Beggar Must Always Excite Anger.

The Human Race Is Governed By Its Imagination.

England Is A Nation Of Shopkeepers.

If I Had Not Been Defeated In Acre Against Jezzar Pasha Of Turk. I Would Conquer All Of The East.

A People Which Is Able To Say Everything Becomes Able To Do Everything.

My Enemies Make Appointments At My Tomb.

Un Croquis Vaut Mieux Qu

Muhammad Was A Prince; He Rallied His Compatriots Around Him. In A Few Years, The Muslims Conquered Half Of The World. They Plucked More Souls From False Gods, Knocked Down More Idols, Razed More Pagan Temples In Fifteen Years Than The Followers Of Moses And Jesus Did In Fifteen Centuries. Muhammad Was A Great Man. He Would Indeed Have Been A God, If The Revolution That He Had Performed Had Not Been Prepared By The Circumstances.

A Man Like Me Troubles Himself Little About A Million Men.

A True Master Of Politics Is Able To Calculate, Down To The Smallest Fraction, The Advantages To Which He May Put His Very Faults.

A Throne Is Only A Bench Covered With Velvet.

What A Solace Christianity Must Be To One Who Has An Undoubted Conviction Of Its Truth!

Never Ascribe To Malice That Which Is Adequately Explained By Stupidity.

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

When A Man Is A Favorite Of Fortune She Never Takes Him Unawares, And, However Astonishing Her Favors May Be, She Finds Him Ready.

To Write History One Must Be More Than A Man, Since The Author Who Holds The Pen Of This Great Justiciary Must Be Free From All Preoccupation Of Interest Or Vanity.

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

Washington Is Dead! This Great Man Fought Against Tyranny; He Established The Liberty Of His Country. His Memory Will Always Be Dear To The French People, As It Will Be To All Free Men Of The Two Worlds; And Especially To French Soldiers, Who, Like Him And The American Soldiers, Have Combated For Liberty And Equality.

Passionate People Invariably Deny Their Anger, And Cowards Often Boast Their Ignorance Of Fear.

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.

Whatever Shall We Do In That Remote Spot? Well, We Will Write Our Memoirs. Work Is The Scythe Of Time.

Do You Know What Amazes Me More Than Anything Else? The Impotence Of Force To Organize Anything.

It Is The Business Of Cavalry To Follow Up The Victory, And To Prevent The Beaten Army From Rallying.

Where The Government Is Weak, Military Sway Prevails.

Over-preparation Is The Foe Of Inspiration.

Sometimes A Single Battle Decides Everything And Sometimes, Too, The Slightest Circumstance Decides The Issue Of A Battle. There Is A Moment In Every Battle At Which The Least Manoeuvre Is Decisive And Gives Superiority, As One Drop Of Water Causes Overflow.

Knowledge And History Are The Enemies Of Religion.

It's Not The Size Of The Army But The Power Within The Army.

Remember, Gentlemen, What A Roman Emperor Said: The Corpse Of An Enemy Always Smells Sweet.

Variety Made The Revolution. Liberty Was Just A Pretext.

The Most Desirable Quality In A Soldier Is Constancy In The Support Of Fatigue; Valor Is Only Secondary.

A Leader Has The Right To Be Beaten, But Never The Right To Be Surprised.

It Is Not Necessary To Prohibit Or Encourage Oddities Of Conduct Which Are Not Harmful.

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

In War One Must Lean On An Obstacle In Order To Overcome It.

So You Think The Police Foresees And Knows Everything. The Police Invents More Than It Discovers.

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

In War, Three-quarters Turns On Personal Character And Relations; The Balance Of Manpower And Materials Counts Only For The Remaining Quarter.

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

I Made All My Generals Out Of Mud.

A Great Reserve And Severity Of Manners Are Necessary For The Command Of Those Who Are Older Than Ourselves.

Revolutions Are Good Times For Soldiers Of Talent And Courage.

Diplomacy Is The Police In Grand Costume.

He Who Knows How To Flatter Also Knows How To Slander.

A Celebrated People Lose Dignity Upon A Closer View.

Everything Is More Or Less Organized Matter. To Think So Is Against Religion, But I Think So Just The Same.

The Only Way To Lead People Is To Show Them A Future: A Leader Is A Dealer In Hope.

Take Time To Deliberate, But When The Time For Action Has Arrived, Stop Thinking And Go In.

Thinking Of You

For Today, We Celebrate The First Glorious Anniversary Of The Information Purification Directives. We Have Created, For The First Time In All History, A Garden Of Pure Ideology. Where Each Worker May Bloom Secure From The Pests Of Contradictory And Confusing Truths. Our Unification Of Thought Is More Powerful A Weapon Than Any Fleet Or Army On Earth. We Are One People. With One Will. One Resolve. One Cause. Our Enemies Shall Talk Themselves To Death. And We Will Bury Them With Their Own Confusion. We Shall Prevail!

The Fate Of A Battle Is The Result Of A Moment, Of A Thought: The Hostile Forces Advance With Various Combinations, They Attack Each Other And Fight For A Certain Time; The Critical Moment Arrives, A Mental Flash Decides, And The Least Reserve Accomplishes The Object.

An Order That Can Be Misunderstood, Will Be Misunderstood.

Great Battles Are Won With Artillery.

Strangers Are Just Friends Waiting To Happen. To Become A Good Man, One Must Have Faithful Friends, Or Outright Enemies.

There Are Two Merits That Glorify A Person: Being Courageous For A Man And Being Virtuous For A Woman. Besides These Two, There Is Another Merit That Glorifies Both Man And Woman: So Much Loving The Homeland To An Extent With Being Ready To Sacrifice His/her Life, If Needed. Turks Are Such Courageous And Virtuous People. That Is Why You Can Kill A Turk But You Can Never Defeat Them.

You Cannot Treat With All The World At Once.

Every Man Who Is Worth Thirty Millions And Is Not Wedded To Them, Is Dangerous To The Government.

I May Have Had Many Projects, But I Never Was Free To Carry Out Any Of Them. It Did Me Little Good To Be Holding The Helm; No Matter How Strong My Hands, The Sudden And Numerous Waves Were Stronger Still, And I Was Wise Enough To Yield To Them Rather Than Resist Them Obstinately And Make The Ship Founder. Thus I Never Was Truly My Own Master But Was Always Ruled By Circumstances.

You Think You Are Too Intelligent To Believe In God. I Am Not Like You.

To Be Believed Make The Truth Unbelievable.

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.

Government Lies

The Most Insupportable Of Tyrannies Is That Of Inferiors.

A Man Becomes The Creature Of His Uniform.

Europe Is A Molehill. All Great Empires And Revolutions Have Been On The Orient; Six Hundred Millions Live There.

If It Had Not Been For The English I Should Have Been Emperor Of The East, But Wherever There Is Water To Float A Ship We Are Sure To Find Them In Our Way.

The Secret Of War Lies In The Communications.

Men Have Their Virtues And Their Vices, Their Heroisms And Their Perversities; Men Are Neither Wholly Good Nor Wholly Bad, But Possess And Practice All That There Is Of Good And Bad Here Below. Such Is The General Rule. Temperament, Education, The Accidents Of Life, Are Modifying Factors. Outside Of This, Everything Is Ordered Arrangement, Everything Is Chance. Such Has Been My Rule Of Expectation And It Has Usually Brought Me Success.

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.

What A Beautiful Fix We Are In Now; Peace Has Been Declared.

I Hope The Time Is Not Far Off When I Shall Be Able To Unite All The Wise And Educated Men Of All The Countries And Establish A Uniform Regime Based On The Principles Of The Quran Which Alone Are True And Which Alone Can Lead Men To Happiness.

Incidents Should Not Govern Policy; But, Policy Incidents.

To Have A Right Estimate Of A Man's Character, We Must See Him In Misfortune.

I Pay Attention Only To What People Do Or Say. I Never Pay Attention To What They Think.

All The Women In The World Would Not Make Me Lose An Hour.

Unite For The Public Safety, If You Would Remain An Independent Nation.

Better To Have An Open Enemy, Than Hidden Friends.

Nothing Is So Important In War As An Undivided Command.

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

Do Not Talk To Me Of Goodness, Of Abstract Justice, Of Nature Law. Necessity Is The Highest Law, Public Welfare Is The Highest Justice.

A True Man Hates No One.

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

My Generals Are A Parcel Of Post Inspectors.

A Great Reputation Is A Great Noise, The More There Is Of It, And The Further Does It Swell. Land, Monuments, Nations, All Fall, But The Noise Remains, And Will Reach To Other Generations.

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

The Hand That Gives Is Among The Hand That Takes. Money Has No Fatherland, Financiers Are Without Patriotism And Without Decency, Their Sole Object Is Gain.

The World Soffers A Lot. Not Because The Violence Of Bad People. But Because Of The Silence Of The Good People.

You Must Not Fight Too Often With One Enemy, Or You Will Teach Him All Your Art Of War.

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

While I Live I Will Never Resort To Irredeemable Paper.

It Is In Times Of Difficulty That Great Nations Like Great Men Display The Whole Energy Of Their Character And Become An Object Of Admiration To Posterity.

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

What My Enemies Call A General Peace Is My Destruction. What I Call Peace Is Merely The Disarmament Of My Enemies. Am I Not More Moderate Than They?

A Fool Is Only Troublesome, A Pedant Insupportable.

My Mind Is A Chest Of Drawers. When I Wish To Deal With A Subject, I Shut All The Drawers But The One In Which The Subject Is To Be Found. When I Am Wearied, I Shut All The Drawers And Go To Sleep.

History Is The Invention Of Historians.

It Is The Cause, Not The Death, That Makes The Martyr.

In The Eyes Of Empire Builders Men Are Not Men But Instruments.

When Small Men Attempt Great Enterprises, They Always End By Reducing Them To The Level Of Their Mediocrity.

The Greatest Danger Occurs At The Moment Of Victory

I Know He's A Good General, But Is He Lucky?

An Urgent Missive Sent To Josephine Home In Three Days. Don't Wash.

It Is A Mistake, Too, To Say That The Face Is The Mirror Of The Soul. The Truth Is, Men Are Very Hard To Know, And Yet, Not To Be Deceived, We Must Judge Them By Their Present Actions, But For The Present Only.

There Is No Real Force Without Justice.

Religion Is Excellent Stuff For Keeping Common People Quiet.

Fashion Condemns Us To Many Follies, The Greatest Is To Make Oneself Its Slave.

I Love A Brave Soldier Who Has Undergone The Baptism Of Fire.

It Is Easy To Know When A Government Wishes For Peace By Observing The Character Of The Person Sent To Negotiate For It.

History Is A Set Of Lies Agreed Upon.

I May Be Accused Or Rashness, But Not Sluggishness.

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

The Barbarous Custom Of Having Men Beaten Who Are Suspected Of Having Important Secrets To Reveal Must Be Abolished. It Has Always Been Recognized That This Way Of Interrogating Men, By Putting Them To Torture, Produces Nothing Worthwhile.

Audacity Succeeds As Often As It Fails; In Life It Has An Even Chance.

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.

Medicines Are Only Fit For Old People.

Men Are Ruled By Toys.

An Army Of Lions Commanded By A Deer Will Never Be An Army Of Lions.

A Man Cannot Become An Atheist Merely By Wishing It.

Nothing Makes The Future Look So Rosy As To Contemplate It Through A Glass Of Chambertin.

You Can Do Anything With Bayonets Except Sit On Them

In War, The Moral Element And Public Opinion Are Half The Battle.

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

Remember That A Man, A True Man, Never Hates. His Rages And His Bad Moods Never Last Beyond The Present Moment-like Electric Shocks.

To Negotiate Is Not To Do As One Likes.

You Do Not Get Peace By Shouting: Peace. Peace Is A Meaningless Word; What We Need Is A Glorious Peace.

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.

An Army Which Cannot Be Reenforced Is Already Defeated.

Those Who Failed To Oppose Me, Who Readily Agreed With Me, Accepted All My Views, And Yielded Easily To My Opinions, Were Those Who Did Me The Most Injury, And Were My Worst Enemies, Because, By Surrendering To Me So Easily, They Encouraged Me To Go Too Far... I Was Then Too Powerful For Any Man, Except Myself, To Injure Me.

I Am Surrounded By Priests Who Repeat Incessantly That Their Kingdom Is Not Of This World, And Yet They Lay Their Hands On Everything They Can Get.

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

The Basic Principle That We Must Follow In Directing The Armies Of The Republic Is This: That They Must Feed Themselves On War At The Expense Of The Enemy Territory.

Death Is Nothing, But To Live Defeated And Inglorious Is To Die Daily.

If You (to General Bertrand) Do Not Perceive That Jesus Christ Is God, Very Well; Then I Did Wrong To Make You A General.

Providence Is Always On The Side Of The Last Reserve.

If We Could Read The Past Histories Of All Our Enemies We Would Disregard All Hostility For Them.

A Good Sketch Is Better Than A Long Speech.

It Is Not Enough To Give Orders They Must Be Obeyed.

Since The Discovery Of Printing, Knowledge Has Been Called To Power, And Power Has Been Used To Make Knowledge A Slave.

An Empty Throne Always Tempts Me.

Morality For The Upper Classes, The Gallows For The Rabbles.

Men Are Led By Trifles.

Leaders Deal In Hope.

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

Put Your Iron Hand In A Velvet Glove.

Immortality Is The Best Recollection One Leaves.

The More I Study The World, The More I Am Convinced Of The Inability Of Brute Force To Create Anything Durable.

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