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

-Napoleon Bonaparte

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In War, Three-quarters Turns

Napoleon Bonaparte

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

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What I Have Done Up To This Is Nothing. I Am Only At The Beginning Of The Course I Must Run. Do You Imagine That I Triumph In Italy In Order To Aggrandise The Pack Of Lawyers Who Form The Directory, And Men Like Carnot And Barras? What An Idea!

I Shall Be An Attila To Venice.

If You Wish To Be A Success In The World, Promise Everything, Deliver Nothing.

Broken Promises

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

Rascality Has Limits; Stupidity Has Not.

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

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

An Army Must Have But One Line Of Operations. This Must Be Maintained With Care And Abandoned Only For Major Reasons.

Mankind Are In The End Always Governed By Superiority Of Intellectual Faculties, And None Are More Sensible Of This Than The Military Profession. When, On My Return From Italy, I Assumed The Dress Of The Institute, And Associated With Men Of Science, I Knew What I Was Doing: I Was Sure Of Not Being Misunderstood By The Lowest Drummer Boy In The Army.

Unity Of Command Is Essential To The Economy Of Time. Warfare In The Field Was Like A Siege: By Directing All One's Force To A Single Point A Breach Might Be Made, And The Equilibrium Of Opposition Destroyed.

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

It's The People Who Are In The Wrong Who Get Angry.

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

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

The Conscience Is The Sacred Haven Of The Liberty Of Man.

The Policies Of All Powers Are Inherent In Their Geography.

Public Morals Are Natural Complement Of All Laws They Are By Themselves An Entire Code.

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

All Systems Of Morality Are Fine. The Gospel Alone Has Exhibited A Complete Assemblage Of The Principles Of Morality, Divested Of All Absurdity. It Is Not Composed, Like Your Creed, Of A Few Common-place Sentences Put Into Bad Verse. Do You Wish To See That Which Is Really Sublime? Repeat The Lord's Prayer.

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

Collective Crimes Incriminate No One.

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

Tragedy Warms The Soul, Elevates The Heart, Can And Ought To Create Heroes. In This Sense, Perhaps, France Owes A Part Of Her Great Actions To Corneille.

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

The Most Terrible Of All My Battles Was The One Before Moscow. The French Showed Themselves To Be Worthy Of Victory, But The Russians Showed Themselves Worthy Of Being Invincible.

All Generals, Officers, And Soldiers Who Capitulate In Battle To Save Their Own Lives Should Be Decimated.

Give Me A Man With A Good Allowance Of Nose,... When I Want Any Good Head-work Done I Choose A Man - Provided His Education Has Been Suitable - With A Long Nose.

Men Are Moved By Two Levers Only: Fear And Self Interest.

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.

France Needs Nothing So Much To Promote Her Regeneration As Good Mothers.

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

Great Men Are Never Cruel Without Necessity.

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

The Heart Of A Statesman Should Be In His Head.

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

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

Ten People Who Speak Make More Noise Than Ten Thousand Who Are Silent.

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.

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

I Am The Successor, Not Of Louis Xvi, But Of Charlemagne.

A Woman Laughing Is A Woman Conquered.

A Government Protected By Foreigners Will Never Be Accepted By A Free People.

I Would Rather Have A General Who Was Lucky Than One Who Was Good.

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

One Must Change One's Tactics Every Ten Years If One Wishes To Maintain One's Superiority.

When Defending Itself Against Another Country, A Nation Never Lacks Men, But Too Often, Soldiers.

My Success And Everything Good That I Have Done, I Owe To My Mother.

The Herd Seek Out The Great, Not For Their Sake But For Their Influence; And The Great Welcome Them Out Of Vanity Or Need.

The Truest Wisdom Is A Resolute Determination.

Religions Are All Founded On Miracles - On Things We Cannot Understand, Such As The Trinity. Jesus Calls Himself The Son Of God, And Yet Is Descended From David. I Prefer The Religion Of Mahomet - It Is Less Ridiculous Than Ours.

The Worse The Troops The Greater The Need Of Artillery.

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.

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

Fanaticism Must Be Put To Sleep Before It Can Be Eradicated.

I Would Rather Suffer With Coffee Than Be Senseless.

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 Men Grow Tired Of Contentedness.

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

We Are Either Kings Or Pawns Of Men

A Constitution Should Be Short And Obscure.

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

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

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

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.

The Superior Man Is Never In Anyone's Way.

Which Is Heavier: A Soldier's Pack Or A Slave's Chains?

For The Stability Of The Government, The People Should Have A Considerable Voice In The Elections.

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

Leave The Artillerymen Alone, They Are An Obstinate Lot.

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

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

Cossacks Are The Best Light Troops Among All That Exist. If I Had Them In My Army, I Would Go Through All The World With Them.

Large Legislative Bodies Resolve Themselves Into Coteries, And Coteries Into Jealousies.

Every French Soldier Carriers A Marshal's Baton In His Knapsack.

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

I Believe Love To Be Hurtful To Society, And To The Individual Happiness Of Men. I Believe, In Short, That Love Does More Harm Than Good.

History Is A Set Of Lies Agreed Upon.

In Politics... Never Retreat, Never Retract... Never Admit A Mistake.

On Victory, You Deserve Beer. On Defeat, You Need It.

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

It Is Cowardice To Commit Suicide.

Peoples Of Egypt , You Will Be Told That I Have Come To Destroy Your Religion. Do Not Believe It! Reply That I Have Come To Restore Your Rights!

I Do Not Amuse Myself By Thinking Of Dead People.

The Nature Of Christ's Existence Is Mysterious, I Admit; But This Mystery Meets The Wants Of Man. Reject It, And The World Is An Inexplicable Riddle; Believe It, And The History Of Our Race Is Satisfactorily Explained.

The Heart May Be Broken, And The Soul Remain Unshaken.

If Fifty Thousand Men Were To Die For The Good Of The State, I Certainly Would Weep For Them, But Political Necessity Comes Before Everything Else.

I Can No Longer Obey; I Have Tasted Command, And I Cannot Give It Up.

The Allied Powers Having Proclaimed That The Emperor Napoleon Is The Sole Obstacle To The Re-establishment Of Peace In Europe, He, Faithful To His Oath, Declares That He Is Ready To Descend From The Throne, To Quit France, And Even To Relinquish Life, For The Good Of His Country.

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

To Command, You Must First Of All Speak To The Eyes.

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

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

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

Public Opinion Is The Thermometer A Monarch Should Constantly Consult.

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

The Admiral Needs Only One Science, That Of Navigation. The General Needs All The Sciences.

Every Hour Of Lost Time Is A Chance Of Future Misfortune.

A Man Cannot Become An Atheist Merely By Wishing It.

In War, As In Love, We Must Come Into Contact Before We Triumph.

The Great Difficulty With Politics Is, That There Are No Established Principles.

Let The Path Be Open To Talent.

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

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

Power Is Founded Upon Opinion.

Men, In General, Are But Great Children.

Conscription Is The Vitality Of A Nation, The Purification Of Its Morality, And The Real Foundations Of All Its Habits

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

All Religions Have Been Made By Men.

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.

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

Better To Have An Open Enemy, Than Hidden Friends.

Where Flowers Degenerate Man Cannot Live.

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

Greatness Be Nothing Unless It Be Lasting.

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

Every Beggar Shall Be Arrested. But To Arrest A Beggar Merely In Order To Put Him In Jail Would Be Barbarous And Absurd. He Should Be Arrested For The Sole Purpose Of Teaching Him How To Earn A Living By His Work.

We Must Laugh At Man To Avoid Crying For Him.

You Cannot Stop Me; I Spend Thirty Thousand Men A Month.

It Should Not Be Believed That A March Of Three Or Four Days In The Wrong Direction Can Be Corrected By A Countermarch. As A Rule, This Is To Make Two Mistakes Instead Of One.

Soldiers Win Battles And Generals Get The Medals.

Men Are Never Attached To You By Favours.

Men Are Led By Trifles.

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

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

Monetary System

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

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.

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.

When You Have An Enemy In Your Power, Deprive Him Of The Means Of Ever Injuring You.

Friendship Is But A Name. I Love No One.

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

In Political Administration, No Problem Is Ever Simple. It Can Never Be Reduced To The Question Whether A Certain Measure Is Good Or Not.

Muhammad Was A Great Man, An Intrepid Soldier; With A Handful Of Men He Triumphed At The Battle Of Bender (sic); A Great Captain, Eloquent, A Great Man Of State, He Revived His Fatherland And Created A New People And A New Power In The Middle Of Arabia.

When I Was Happy I Thought I Knew Men, But It Was Fated That I Should Know Them In Misfortune Only.

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

Prussia Was Hatched From A Cannon-ball.

Battles Are Lost Or Won In 15 Minutes

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

In War You See Your Own Troubles; Those Of The Enemy You Cannot See. You Must Show Confidence.

Ability Is Nothing Without Opportunity.

A People That Is Able To Say Everything, Becomes Able To Do Everything. The Crowd Which Follows Me With Admiration, Would Run With The Same Eagerness Were I Marching To The Guillotine.

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

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

Incidents Should Not Govern Policy; But, Policy Incidents.

In A Narrow Sphere Great Men Are Blunderers.

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

Envy Is A Declaration Of Inferiority.

The French Complain Of Everything, And Always.

True Character Stands The Test Of Emergencies. Do Not Be Mistaken, It Is Weakness From Which The Awakening Is Rude.

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

Who Saves His Country Violates No Law.

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.

Not One Cent Should Be Raised Unless It Is In Accord With The Law.

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

A King Is Sometimes Obliged To Commit Crimes; But They Are The Crimes Of His Position.

I Have Made Noise Enough In The World Already, Perhaps Too Much, And Am Now Getting Old, And Want Retirement.

The Gospel Is Not A Book; It Is A Living Being, With An Action, A Power, Which Invades Every Thing That Opposes Its Extension, Behold! It Is Upon This Table: This Book, Surpassing All Others. I Never Omit To Read It, And Every Day With Some Pleasure.

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

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.

If I Were To Give Liberty To The Press, My Power Could Not Last Three Days.

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.

When You Have Resolved To Fight A Battle, Collect Your Whole Force. Dispense With Nothing. A Single Battalion Sometimes Decides The Day.

The Most Insupportable Of Tyrannies Is That Of Inferiors.

We Live And Die In The Midst Of Marvels.

Across A Chasm Of Eighteen Hundred Years, Jesus Christ Makes A Demand Which Is Beyond All Others Difficult To Satisfy; He Asks For That Which A Philosopher May Often Seek In Vain At The Hands Of His Friends, Or A Father Of His Children, Or A Bride Of Her Spouse, Or A Man Of His Brother. He Asks For The Human Heart; He Will Have It Entirely To Himself. He Demands It Unconditionally; And Forthwith His Demand Is Granted. Wonderful!

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

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

To Negotiate Is Not To Do As One Likes.

The Worse The Man, The Better The Soldier.

Public Instruction Should Be The First Object Of Government.

There Is No Real Force Without Justice.

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

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.

The Advance And Perfecting Of Mathematics Are Closely Joined To The Prosperity Of The Nation.

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.

Put Your Iron Hand In A Velvet Glove.

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

The Greatest General Is He Who Makes The Fewest Mistakes.

Women Are Nothing But Machines For Producing Children.

When People Cease To Complain, They Cease To Think.

What Is A Throne? - A Bit Of Wood Gilded And Covered In Velvet. I Am The State- I Alone Am Here The Representative Of The People. Even If I Had Done Wrong You Should Not Have Reproached Me In Public - People Wash Their Dirty Linen At Home. France Has More Need Of Me Than I Of France.

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.

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

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?

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

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

My Star Was Fading, I Felt The Reins Slipping Out Of My Grasp, And Could Do Nothing To Stop It.

After Me, The Revolution - Or, Rather The Ideas Which Formed It - Will Resume Their Course. It Will Be Like A Book From Which The Marker Is Removed, And One Starts To Read Again At The Page Where One Left Off.

Vengeance Is Without Foresight.

We Should Wash Our Dirty Linen At Home.

Give Me A Turkish Army. I Will Conquer World.

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

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

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

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

Good Intelligence Is Nine-tenths Of Any Battle.

The Mind Of A General Ought To Resemble And Be As Clear As The Field-glass Of A Telescope.

History Is The Version Of Past Events That People Have Decided To Agree Upon.

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

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

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