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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.

-Napoleon Bonaparte

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One Must Indeed Be

Napoleon Bonaparte

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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.

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History Is Written By The Winners.

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

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

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

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?

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

One Bad General Is Worth Two Good Ones.

The Only True Conquests-those That Awaken No Regrets- Are Those Obtained Over Our Ignorance.

This Year Has Begun Hopefully For Right Thinkers. After All These Centuries Of Feudal Barbarism And Political Slavery, It Is Surprising To See How The Word Of 'liberty' Sets Minds On Fire.

Promptly Improve Your Accidents.

The Worse The Man The Better The Soldier. If Soldiers Be Not Corrupt They Ought To Be Made So.

When A Government Is Dependent Upon Bankers For Money, They And Not The Leaders Of The Government Control The Situation

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

Monetary System

Great Battles Are Won With Artillery.

Clearly, The Pleasures Wines Afford Are Transitory - But So Are Those Of The Ballet, Or Of A Musical Performance. Wine Is Inspiring And Adds Greatly To The Joy Of Living.

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.

As For Me, To Love You Alone, To Make You Happy, To Do Nothing Which Would Contradict Your Wishes, This Is My Destiny And The Meaning Of My Life.

Against Attempts On My Life, I Trust In My Luck, My Good Genius, And My Guards.

France Will Always Be A Great Nation.

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

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

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.

Wine Is Inspiring And Adds Greatly To The Joy Of Living.

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

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.

There Are In Europe Many Good Generals, But They See Too Many Things At Once. I See One Thing, Namely The Enemy's Main Body. I Try To Crush It, Confident That Secondary Matters Will Then Settle Themselves.

In The Last Analysis, One Must Be A Military Man In Order To Govern. It Is Only With Boot And Spurs That One Can Govern A Horse.

It Is Only By Prudence, Wisdom, And Dexterity That Great Ends Are Attained And Obstacles Overcome. Without These Qualities Nothing Succeeds.

Great Ambition Is The Passion Of A Great Character.

Brave Deeds Are The Monuments Of Brave Men.

The Great Proof Of Madness Is The Disproportion Of One's Designs To One's Means.

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.

The Best Generals Are Those Who Have Served In The Artillery.

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

Clever Policy Consists In Making Nations Believe They Are Free.

You Cannot Treat With All The World At Once.

A Mathematician Of The First Rank, Laplace Quickly Revealed Himself As Only A Mediocre Administrator; From His First Work We Saw That We Had Been Deceived. Laplace Saw No Question From Its True Point Of View; He Sought Subtleties Everywhere; Had Only Doubtful Ideas, And Finally Carried The Spirit Of The Infinitely Small Into Administration.

In Order Not To Be Astonished At Obtaining Victories, One Ought Not To Think Only Of Defeats.

Hereditary Succession To The Magistracy Is Absurd, As It Tends To Make A Property Of It; It Is Incompatible With The Sovereignty Of The People.

This Accession Of Territory Affirms Forever The Power Of The United States, And I Have Given England A Maritime Rival Who Sooner Or Later Will Humble Her Pride.

Of All The Peoples Of Europe, Spaniards Disgust Me The Least.

My Generals Are A Parcel Of Post Inspectors.

In War, The General Alone Can Judge Of Certain Arrangements. It Depends On Him Alone To Conquer Difficulties By His Own Superior Talents And Resolution.

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

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

Leaders Have To Be Dealers In Hope.

You May Ask Me For Anything You Like Except Time.

He Who Is Unmoved By Tears Has No Heart.

The Most Difficult Art Is Not In The Choice Of Men, But In Giving To The Men Chosen The Highest Service Of Which They Are Capable.

God Is On The Side With The Best Artillery

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.

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Man, Not Men, Is The Most Important Consideration.

War Is Ninety Percent Information.

A General Must Be A Charlatan.

The Art Of Government Is Not To Let Me Grow Stale.

The Law, That Is What Makes Men Stay Honest.

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Democracy, If It Is Reasonable, Limits Itself To Giving Everyone An Equal Opportunity To Compete And To Obtain.

The Army Is The True Nobility Of Our Country.

I Am Conquered Less By Fortune Than By The Egotism And Ingratitude Of My Companions In Arms.

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

A Man Will Fight Harder For His Interests Than For His Rights.

Throw Off Your Worries When You Throw Off Your Clothes At Night.

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To Attach No Importance To Public Opinion, Is A Proof That You Do Not Merit Its Suffrage.

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

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It Is Cowardice To Commit Suicide.

Great Men Are Never Cruel Without Necessity.

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Kiss The Feet Of Popes Provided Their Hands Are Tied.

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Treason Is A Matter Of Dates.

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

Public Opinion Is The Thermometer A Monarch Should Constantly Consult.

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

The Future Destiny Of A Child Is Always The Work Of The Mother

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

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.

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

As A Rule It Is Circumstances That Make Men.

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.

I Generally Had To Give In.

War Justifies Everything.

How Can You Have Order In A State Without Religion? For, When One Man Is Dying Of Hunger Near Another Who Is Ill Of Surfeit, He Cannot Resign Himself To This Difference Unless There Is An Authority Which Declares 'god Wills It Thus.' Religion Is Excellent Stuff For Keeping Common People Quiet.

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

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Man Will Believe Anything, As Long As It's Not In The Bible.

Prison, Blood, Death, Create Enthusiasts And Martyrs, And Bring Forth Courage And Desperate Resolution.

Ability Has Nothing To Do With Opportunity.

Better To Have An Open Enemy, Than Hidden Friends.

There Is A Joy In Danger.

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.

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

Machiavelli Is Right: One Always Must Live With One's Friends With The Idea That They May Turn Into One's Enemies. He Should Have Said, With Everyone.

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

Leave The Artillerymen Alone, They Are An Obstinate Lot.

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

Nothing Is Lost As Long As Courage Remains

Success Is The Most Convincing Talker In The World.

Vengeance Is Without Foresight.

An Empty Throne Always Tempts Me.

I Drink Champagne When I Win, To Celebrate...and I Drink Champagne When I Lose, To Console Myself.

One Should Never Forbid What One Lacks The Power To Prevent.

The Purely Defensive Is Doomed To Defeat.

He, Who Practices Right, But In The Hope Of Acquiring Great Renown, Is Very Near To Vice.

Ability Is Nothing Without Opportunity.

A Constitution Should Be Short And Obscure.

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.

Let Her Sleep, For When She Wakes, She Will Shake The World.

An Army Travels On Its Stomach. Soup Makes The Soldier.

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

England Is A Nation Of Shopkeepers.

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

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

If They Want Peace, Nations Should Avoid The Pin-pricks That Precede Cannon Shots.

Never Depend On The Multitude, Full Of Instability And Whims; Always Take Precautions Against It.

Providence Is Always On The Side Of The Last Reserve.

It Must Be Recognized That The Real Truths Of History Are Hard To Discover. Happily, For The Most Part, They Are Rather Matters Of Curiosity Than Of Real Importance.

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

There Is One Kind Of Robber Whom The Law Does Not Strike At, And Who Steals What Is Most Precious To Men: Time.

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

I Like Honest Men Of All Colors.

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

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.

I Have Made All The Calculations; Fate Will Do The Rest.

Every Means Should Be Taken To Attach The Soldier To His Colours.

War Is A Serious Game In Which A Man Risks His Reputation, His Troops, And His Country. A Sensible Man Will Search Himself To Know Whether Or Not He Is Fitted For The Trade.

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.

Without Cavalry, Battles Are Without Result.

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.

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.

Laws Which Are Consistent In Theory Often Prove Chaotic In Practice.

In War, The Moral Is To The Physical As Three Is To One.

No Amount Of Money Will Induce Someone To Lay Down Their Life, But They Will Gladly Do So For A Bit Of Yellow Ribbon.

Alexander, Charlemagne And Myself All Tried To Found An Empire On Force And We Failed. Jesus Christ Is Building An Empire On Love, And Today There Are Millions Of People Who Would Gladly Die For His Sake.

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

When Firmness Is Sufficient, Rashness Is Unnecessary.

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

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.

That Man Made Me Miss My Destiny.

I Make My Battle Plans From The Spirit Of My Sleeping Soldiers

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

Glory Is Fleeting, But Obscurity Is Forever.

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

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

Give Me Enough Medals And I’ll Win You Any War

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.

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

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

Broken Promises

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

My True Glory Is Not To Have Won 40 Battles ... Waterloo Will Erase The Memory Of So Many Victories, ... But ... What Will Live Forever, Is My Civil Code.

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

It Is The Success Which Makes Great Men.

Congratulations

The Laws Of Circumstance Are Abolished By New Circumstances.

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

The Policies Of All Powers Are Inherent In Their Geography.

I Have Seen Only You, I Have Admired Only You, I Desire Only You

Men Are Led By Trifles.

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

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

An Army Marches On Its Stomach.

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.

The Truest Wisdom Is A Resolute Determination.

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

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

The Art Of The Police Is Not To See What It Is Useless That It Should See.

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

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.

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