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I Would Believe Any Religion That Could Prove It Had Existed Since The Beginning Of The World. But When I See Socrates, Plato, Moses, And Mohammed I Do Not Think There Is Such A One. All Religions Owe Their Origin To Man.

-Napoleon Bonaparte

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I Would Believe Any

Napoleon Bonaparte

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I Would Believe Any Religion That Could Prove It Had Existed Since The Beginning Of The World. But When I See Socrates, Plato, Moses, And Mohammed I Do Not Think There Is Such A One. All Religions Owe Their Origin To Man.

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Christ Alone Has Succeeded In So Raising The Mind Of Man Toward The Unseen, That It Becomes Insensible To The Barriers Of Time And Space.

Great Ambition Is The Passion Of A Great Character.

Called To The Throne By The Voice Of The People, My Maxim Has Always Been: A Career Open To Talent Without Distinction Of Birth. It Is This System Of Equality For Which The European Oligarchy Detests Me

Public Esteem Is The Recompense Of Honest Men.

We Should Wash Our Dirty Linen At Home.

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

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.

The Public Spirit Is In The Hands Of The Man Who Knows How To Make Use Of It.

The Practice Of Law Sharpens The Mind By Making It Narrow.

Has A Man The Right To Kill Himself? Yes, If His Death Harms No One And If Life Is An Evil To Him. When Is Life An Evil? When It Offers A Man Nothing But Suffering And Pain.

Where The Government Is Weak, Military Sway Prevails.

An Army Marches On Its Stomach.

Power Is My Mistress. I Have Worked Too Hard At Her Conquest To Allow Anyone To Take Her Away From Me.

History Is The Invention Of Historians.

Doctors Will Have More Lives To Answer For In The Next World Than Even We Generals.

I Would Believe Any Religion That Could Prove It Had Existed Since The Beginning Of The World. But When I See Socrates, Plato, Moses, And Mohammed I Do Not Think There Is Such A One. All Religions Owe Their Origin To Man.

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

Ambition Never Is In A Greater Hurry That I; It Merely Keeps Pace With Circumstances And With My General Way Of Thinking.

You Cannot Drag A Man's Conscience Before Any Tribunal, And No One Is Answerable For His Religious Opinions To Any Power On Earth.

Soldiers Generally Win Battles; Generals Get Credit For Them.

The Law, That Is What Makes Men Stay Honest.

The Merit Of Mahomet Is That He Founded A Religion Without An Inferno.

Six Hours' Sleep For A Man, Seven For A Woman, And Eight For A Fool.

There Are Two Levers For Moving Men - Interest And Fear.

War Is Ninety Percent Information.

Our Hour Is Marked, And No One Can Claim A Moment Of Life Beyond What Fate Has Predestined.

I May Have Had Many Projects, But I Never Was Free To Carry Out Any Of Them.

Treason Is A Matter Of Dates.

It Is Cowardly To Commit Suicide. The English Often Kill Themselves. It Is A Malady Caused By The Humid Climate.

It Is Not Necessary To Bury The Truth. It Is Sufficient Merely To Delay It Until Nobody Cares.

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

Governments Keep Their Promises Only When They Are Forced, Or When It Is To Their Advantage To Do So.

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.

I Have Fought Sixty Battles, And I Have Learnt Nothing Which I Did Not Know At The Beginning.

War Is The Business Of Barbarians.

Nothing Is So Important In War As An Undivided Command.

Great Men Are Never Cruel Without Necessity.

Show Me A Family Of Readers, And I Will Show You The People Who Move The World.

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

Do You Wish To Find Out The Really Sublime? Repeat The Lord's Prayer.

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.

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 Concordat Is Not The Victory Of Any One Party But The Consolidation Of All.

The Fate Of A Nation May Sometimes Depend Upon The Position Of A Fortress.

In Order That A People May Be Free, It Is Necessary That The Governed Be Sages, And Those Who Govern, Gods.

War Justifies Everything.

There Are Two Kinds Of Fidelity, That Of Dogs And That Of Cats; You, Gentleman, Have The Fidelity Of Cats Who Never Leave The House.

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

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

Power Is What They Like - It Is The Greatest Of All Aphrodisiacs.

True Heroism Consists In Rising Superior To Misfortune.

Generals Are Not To Be Too Scrupulous.

The Greatest General Is He Who Makes The Fewest Mistakes.

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

Vengeance Has No Foresight.

To Live, Is To Suffer; And The Honest Man Is Always Fighting To Be Master Of His Own Mind.

Put A Rogue In The Limelight And He Will Act Like An Honest Man.

Men Are Lead By Trifles.

Leaders Have To Be Dealers In Hope.

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.

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

The Logical End To Defensive Warfare Is Surrender.

I Do Not Amuse Myself By Thinking Of Dead People.

Never Interrupt Your Enemy When He Is Making A Mistake.

Funny Inspirational

The World Is Not Ruined By The Wickedness Of The Wicked, But By The Weakness Of The Good.

Force Is The Law Of Animals, Men Are Ruled By Conviction.

As A Rule It Is Circumstances That Make Men.

Order Marches With Weighty And Measured Strides. Disorder Is Always In A Hurry.

You Cannot Treat With All The World At Once.

In A Great Nation, The Majority Are Incapable Of Judging Wisely Of Things.

We Are Nothing But By The Law.

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

Courage Isn't Having The Strength To Go On - It Is Going On When You Don't Have Strength.

A Man Is Not Dependent Upon His Fellow Creature, When He Does Not Fear Death.

The Allies We Gain By Victory Will Turn Against Us Upon The Bare Whisper Of Our Defeat.

You Can Not Lead A Battle If You Think You Look Silly On A Horse.

The Art Of Being Sometimes Audacious And Sometimes Very Prudent Is The Secret Of Success.

I Marvel That Whereas The Ambitious Dreams Of My Self, Caesar, And Alexander Should Have Vanished Into Thin Air, A Judean Peasant-jesus-s Hould Be Able To Stretch His Hands Across The Centuries And Control The Destinies Of Men And Nations.

Every Private In The French Army Carries A Field Marshall Wand In His Knapsack.

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 Bible Is Not Merely A Book-it Is A Living Power. . . . Nowhere As In The Bible Can Be Found Such A Series Of Beautiful Ideas And Admirable Maxims Which Pose Before Us Like The Battalions Of A Celestial Army. . . . The Soul Can Never Go Astray While It Has This Book For Its Guide.

Men Soon Get Tired Of Shedding Their Blood For The Advantage Of A Few Individuals, Who Think They Amply Reward The Soldiers Perils With The Treasures They Amass.

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

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

The Affairs Of War, Like The Destiny Of Battles, As Well As Empires, Hang Upon A Spiders Thread.

From Triumph To Downfall Is But A Step. I Have Seen A Trifle Decide The Most Important Issues In The Gravest Affairs.

Never Interfere With An Enemy In The Process Of Destroying Himself.

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.

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.

War Is Like Government, A Matter Of Tact.

History Paints The Human Heart.

Those Who Failed To Oppose Me, Who Readily Agreed With Me And Accepted All My Views, Were Those Who Did Me The Most Injury.

Society Cannot Exist Without Inequality Of Fortunes And The Inequality Of Fortunes Could Not Subsist Without Religion. Whenever A Half-starved Person Is Near Another Who Is Glutted, It Is Impossible To Reconcile The Difference If There Is Not An Authority Who Tells Him To.

In War, As In Prostitution, Amateurs Are Often Better Than Professionals.

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

How Many Seemingly Impossible Things Have Been Accomplished By Resolute Men Because They Had To Do, Or Die?

Impossible Things

Ability Is Noting Without Opportunity.

A General Must Be A Charlatan.

I May Lose A Battle But I Will Never Lose A Minute.

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.

I Haven't Known 6 Days Of Happiness In My Life.

There Are So Many Laws That No One Is Safe From Hanging.

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

God Is On The Side Of The Heaviest Cannon.

I Wish I Could Take A Raincheck On June 18.1815

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

Agriculture Is The Soul And Chief Support Of Empires; Industry Produces Riches And The Happiness Of The People; Exportation Represents The Superabundance, And Good Use Of Both.

Medicines Are Only Fit For Old People.

An Empty Throne Always Tempts Me.

If The Earth Were A Single State, Istanbul Would Be Its Capital.

Patriotism Is A Word Which Represents A Noble Idea.

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

Monetary System

If You Know A Country's Geography, You Can Understand And Predict Its Foreign Policy.

In War It Is Not Men, But The Man Who Counts.

When Firmness Is Sufficient, Rashness Is Unnecessary.

If You Set Out To Take Vienna, Take Vienna.

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

Anarchy Is The Stepping Stone To Absolute Power.

Nothing Is More Destructive Than The Charge Of Artillery On A Crowd.

It's The Unconquerable Soul Of Man, And Not The Nature Of The Weapon He Uses, That Ensures Victory

War Is Not At All Such A Difficult Art As People Think. . . . In Reality It Would Seem That He Is Vanquished Who Is Afraid Of His Adversary And The The Whole Secret Lies In That.

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

When Monarchs Abuse The Rights With Which They Have Been Invested By The Confidence Of The People, And Bring Down Upon Their Heads The Calamity Of War, The People Have The Right To Withdraw Their Allegiance.

At The Head Of An Army, Nothing Is More Becoming Than Simplicity.

The Secret Of War Lies In The Communications.

I Have Doubtless Erred More Or Less In Politics, But A Crime I Never Committed.

I Treat Policies Like War. I Hoodwink One Flank So As To Trounce The Other. In My Family We Kneel Only To God.

Arabia Was Idolatrous When, Six Centuries After Jesus, Muhammad Introduced The Worship Of The God Of Abraham, Of Ishmael, Of Moses, And Jesus. The Ariyans And Some Other Sects Had Disturbed The Tranquility Of The East By Agitating The Question Of The Nature Of The Father, The Son, And The Holy Ghost. Muhammad Declared That There Was None But One God Who Had No Father, No Son And That The Trinity Imported The Idea Of Idolatry.

What Is The Future? What Is The Past? What Are We? What Is The Magic Fluid That Surrounds Us And Conceals The Things We Most Need To Know? We Live And Die In The Midst Of Marvels.

France Always Has Plenty Men Of Talent, But It Is Always Deficient In Men Of Action And High Character.

I Feel Myself Driven Towards An End That I Do Not Know. As Soon As I Shall Have Reached It, As Soon As I Shall Become Unnecessary, An Atom Will Suffice To Shatter Me. Till Then, Not All The Forces Of Mankind Can Do Anything Against Me.

Posterity Alone Rightly Judges Kings. Posterity Alone Has The Right To Accord Or Withhold Honors.

A Leader Is A Dealer In Hope.

Wherever Wood Can Swim, There I Am Sure To Find This Flag Of England.

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

Imagination Governs The World.

The First Quality Of A Soldier Is Constancy In Enduring Fatigue And Hardship. Courage Is Only The Second. Poverty Privation And Want Are The School Of The Good Soldier.

A Woman Laughing Is A Woman Conquered.

I Cannot Believe There Is A God Who Punishes And Rewards, For I See Honest Folk Unlucky, And Rogues Unlucky.

The Best Medicine Against The Grapes Of Wrath Is A Whiff Of Grapeshot

From Triumph To Downfall There Is But One Step. I Have Noted That, In The Most Momentous Occasions, Mere Nothings Have Always Decided The Outcome Of The Greatest Events.

Among So Many Conflicting Ideas And So Many Different Perspectives, The Honest Man Is Confused And Distressed And The Skeptic Becomes Wicked ... Since One Must Take Sides, One Might As Well Choose The Side That Is Victorious, The Side Which Devastates, Loots, And Burns. Considering The Alternative, It Is Better To Eat Than To Be Eaten.

Ability Has Nothing To Do With Opportunity.

A Battle Sometimes Decides Everything; And Sometimes The Most Trifling Thing Decides The Fate Of A Battle.

The Worse The Troops The Greater The Need Of Artillery.

The Reason Most People Fail Instead Of Succeed Is They Trade What They Want Most For What They Want At The Moment.

Men Of Genius Are Meteors Destined To Burn Themselves Out In Lighting Up Their Age.

Victory And Disaster Establish Indestructible Bonds Between Armies And Their Commanders.

Speeches Pass Away, But Acts Remain.

We Live And Die In The Midst Of Marvels.

The Contagion Of Crime Is Like That Of The Plague. Criminals Collected Together Corrupt Each Other. They Are Worse Than Ever When, At The Termination Of Their Punishment, They Return To Society.

Go Sir, Gallop And Don't Forget That The World Was Made In Six Days. You Can Ask Me For Anything But Not Time.

It Is Only With Prudence, Sagacity, And Much Dexterity That Great Aims Are Accomplished, And All Obstacles Surmounted. Otherwise Nothing Is Accomplished.

I Would Rather Suffer With Coffee Than Be Senseless.

From First To Last, Jesus Is The Same; Always The Same--majestic And Simple, Infinitely Severe And Infinitely Gentle.

Men, In General, Are But Great Children.

If You Want A Thing Done Well, Do It Yourself.

All Great Events Hang By A Single Thread. The Clever Man Takes Advantage Of Everything, Neglects Nothing That May Give Him Some Added Opportunity; The Less Clever Man, By Neglecting One Thing, Sometimes Misses Everything.

When You Set Out To Take Vienna, Take Vienna.

Military Despotism Represses Generous Sentiments, Priestly Tyranny Stifles Them.

The Strong Are Good, Only The Weak Are Wicked.

A Constitution Should Be Framed So As Not To Impede The Action Of Government, Nor Force The Government To Its Violation.

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

Here, Gentlemen, A Dog Teaches Us A Lesson In Humanity.

Love Is The Idler's Occupation, The Warrior's Relaxation, And The Sovereign's Ruination.

It Would Be A Joke If The Conduct Of The Victor Had To Be Justified To The Vanquished.

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

The English Have No Exaulted Sentiments. They Can All Be Bought.

Insubordination May Only Be The Evidence Of A Strong Mind.

In A Battle, As In A Siege, The Art Consists In Concentrating Very Heavy Fire On A Particular Point. The Line Of Battle Once Established, The One Who Has The Ability To Concentrate An Unlooked For Mass Of Artillery Suddenly And Unexpectedly On One Of These Points Is Sure To Carry The Day.

Riches Do Not Consist In The Possession Of Treasures, But In The Use Made Of Them.

Self Improvement

Conquest Has Made Me What I Am, Only Conquest Can Maintain Me.

Until You Spread Your Wings, You'll Have No Idea How Far You Can Fly.

Kiss The Feet Of Popes Provided Their Hands Are Tied.

For My Part, It Is Not The Mystery Of The Incarnation Which I Discover In Religion, But The Mystery Of Social Order, Which Associates With Heaven That Idea Of Equality Which Prevents The Rich From Destroying The Poor

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

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

Good And Decent People Must Be Protected And Persuaded By Gentle Means, But The Rabble Must Be Led By Terror.

In Revolution There Are Only Two Sorts Of Men, Those Who Cause Them And Those Who Profit By Them.

There Are Only Two Forces That Unite Men - Fear And Interest. All Great Revolutions Originate In Fear, For The Play Of Interests Does Not Lead To Accomplishment.

One Must Indeed Be Ignorant Of The Methods Of Genius To Suppose That It Allows Itself To Be Cramped By Forms. Forms Are For Mediocrity, And It Is Fortunate That Mediocrity Can Act Only According To Routine. Ability Takes Its Flight Unhindered.

In War, Moral Factors Acount For Three Quarters Of The Whole; Relative Material Strength Accounts For Only One Quarter.

Do You Know What Astonished Me The Most In This World? The Inability Of Force To Create Anything.

A Victorious General Must Know How To Employ Severity, Justness, And Mildness By Turns, If He Would Allay Sedition Or Prevent It.

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

We May Stop Ourselves When Going Up, Never When Coming Down.

I Know Men; And I Tell You That Jesus Christ Is Not A Man. Superficial Minds See A Resemblance Between Christ And The Founders Of Empires, And The Gods Of Other Religions. That Resemblance Does Not Exist. There Is Between Christianity And Whatever Other Religions The Distance Of Infinity.

The True Wealth Of A State Consists In The Number Of Its Inhabitants, In Their Toil And Industry.

The Spectacle Of A Field Of Battle After The Combat, Is Sufficient To Inspire Princes With The Love Of Peace, And The Horror Of War.

Imagination Rules The World.

God Is On The Side With The Best Artillery

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

Great Events Ever Depend But Upon A Single Hair. The Adroit Man Profits By Everything, Neglects Nothing Which Can Increase His Chances; The Less Adroit, By Sometimes Disregarding A Single Chance, Fails In Everything.

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

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

We Are Made Weak Both By Idleness And Distrust Of Ourselves. Unfortunate, Indeed, Is He Who Suffers From Both. If He Is A Mere Individual He Becomes Nothing; If He Is A King He Is Lost.

When I Want Any, Good Head Work Done; I Always Choose A Man, If Possible With A Long Nose.

All Things Proclaim The Existence Of God.

Existence Of God

It Is With Artillery That War Is Made.

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

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