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Surely In A Matter Of This Kind We Should Endeavor To Do Something, That We May Say That We Have Not Lived In Vain, That We May Leave Some Impress Of Ourselves On The Sands Of Time.

-Napoleon Bonaparte

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Surely In A Matter

Napoleon Bonaparte

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Surely In A Matter Of This Kind We Should Endeavor To Do Something, That We May Say That We Have Not Lived In Vain, That We May Leave Some Impress Of Ourselves On The Sands Of Time.

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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.

Ability Has Nothing To Do With Opportunity.

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

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!

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

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

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

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

They Wanted Me To Be A Washington.

The Word Impossible Is Not French.

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

One Can Lead A Nation Only By Helping It See A Bright Outlook. A Leader Is A Dealer In Hope.

Rigorous Authority And Justice Are The Kindness Of Kings.

But It Is At Home And Not In Public That One Should Wash Ones Dirty Linen. [fr., Car C'est En Famille, Ce N'est Pas En Public, Qu'un Lave Son Linge Sale.]

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!

A Great People May Be Killed, But They Cannot Be Intimidated.

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.

Nothing Is Lost As Long As Courage Remains

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 Man Is Known By His Conduct To His Wife, To His Family, And To Those Under Him.

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

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.

It Is Cowardice To Commit Suicide.

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.

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

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

What Are The Conditions That Make For The Superiority Of An Army? Its Internal Organization, Military Habits In Officers And Men, The Confidence Of Each In Themselves; That Is To Say, Bravery, Patience, And All That Is Contained In The Idea Of Moral Means.

Public Opinion Is The Thermometer A Monarch Should Constantly Consult.

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

There Are Certain Things In War Of Which The Commander Alone Comprehends The Importance. Nothing But His Superior Firmness And Ability Can Subdue And Surmount All Difficulties.

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

Where Flowers Degenerate Man Cannot Live.

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

A Fool Is Only Troublesome, A Pedant Insupportable.

An Order That Can Be Misunderstood, Will Be Misunderstood.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

I Start Out By Believing The Worst

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.

He Who Is Unmoved By Tears Has No Heart.

If You Want To Get On In This World Make Many Promises, But Don't Keep Them.

England Would Be Better Off Without Canada; It Keeps Her In A Prepared State For War At A Great Expense And Constant Irritation.

It Is An Approved Maxim In War, Never To Do What The Enemy Wishes You To Do, For This Reason Alone, That He Desires It.

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

Oh Well, No Matter What Happens, There's Always Death.

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 Sovereignty Of The People Is Inalienable.

More Glorious To Merit A Sceptre Than To Possess One.

Moses Has Revealed The Existence Of God To His Nation. Jesus Christ To The Roman World, Muhammad To The Old Continent.

A General Must Be A Charlatan.

When You Determine To Risk A Battle, Reserve To Yourself Every Possible Chance Of Success, More Particularly If You Have To Deal With An Adversary Of Superior Talent, For If You Are Beaten, Even In The Midst Of Your Magazines And Your Communications, Woe To The Vanquished!

Men Take Only Their Needs Into Consideration - Never Their Abilities.

Patriotism Is A Word Which Represents A Noble Idea.

Obedience To Public Authority Ought Not To Be Based Either On Ignorance Or Stupidity.

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

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

The Inevitable End Of Multiple Chiefs Is That They Fade And Disappear For Lack Of Unity.

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

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

When People Cease To Complain, They Cease To Think.

A King Should Sacrifice The Best Affections Of His Heart For The Good Of His Country; No Sacrifice Should Be Above His Determination.

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.

Public Opinion Is A Mysterious And Invisible Power, To Which Everything Must Yield. There Is Nothing More Fickle, More Vague, Or More Powerful; Yet Capricious As It Is, It Is Nevertheless Much More Often True, Reasonable, And Just, Than We Imagine.

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.

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

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

Love Is The Occupation Of The Idle Man, The Amusement Of A Busy One, And The Shipwreck Of A Sovereign.

It Is With Artillery That War Is Made.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

International Incidents Must Not Be Allowed To Shape Foreign Policy, Foreign Policy Must Shape The Incidents.

Imagination Governs The World.

Speeches Pass Away, But Acts Remain.

Send Me 300 Francs; That Sum Will Enable Me To Go To Paris. There, At Least, One Can Cut A Figure And Surmount Obstacles. Everything Tells Me I Shall Succeed. Will You Prevent Me From Doing So For The Want Of 100 Crowns?

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 Man Becomes The Creature Of His Uniform.

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

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

Never Tell Your Enemy He Is Doing The Wrong Thing.

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

Great Men Are Meteors Designed To Burn So That Earth May Be Lighted.

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

I Do Not Believe It Is In Our Nature To Love Impartially. We Deceive Ourselves When We Think We Can Love Two Beings, Even Our Own Children, Equally. There Is Always A Dominant Affection.

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

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.

In Order To Govern, The Question Is Not To Follow Out A More Or Less Valid Theory But To Build With Whatever Materials Are At Hand. The Inevitable Must Be Accepted And Turned To Advantage.

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

Victory Belongs To The Most Persevering.

A Throne Is Only A Bench Covered With Velvet.

Malice Delights To Blacken The Characters Of Prominent Men.

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.

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

Imagination Rules The World.

God Is On The Side With The Best Artillery

Nothing Renders A Nation So Despicable As Religious Despotism.

Terrorism, War & Bankruptcy Are Caused By The Privatization Of Money, Issued As A Debt And Compounded By Interest.

In Politics, An Absurdity In Public Business Is Going Into It.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

It Is The Success Which Makes Great Men.

Congratulations

Chess Is Too Difficult To Be A Game And Not Serious Enough To Be A Science Or An Art.

The Strong Are Good, Only The Weak Are Wicked.

I Have Noticed In Every Campaign That I Have Fought-that There Is A Key Segment Of Time, Somewhere Between 13 And 15 Minutes In Which The Battle Is Won Or Lost. I Focus On That Segment Of Time, And I Win.

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

Over-preparation Is The Foe Of Inspiration.

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

The Human Race Is Governed By Its Imagination.

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

Impossible Things

Who Saves His Country Violates No Law.

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.

A Beautiful Woman Like Eyes, And A Good Heart; One Is A Beautiful Thing, And Other Treasures.

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

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

There Is No Man More Pusillanimous Than I When I Am Planning A Campaign. I Purposely Exaggerate All The Dangers And All The Calamities That The Circumstances Make Possible. I Am In A Thoroughly Painful State Of Agitation. This Does Not Keep Me From Looking Quite Serene In Front Of My Entourage; I Am Like An Unmarried Girl Laboring With Child. Once I Have Made Up My Mind, Everything Is Forgotten Except What Leads To Success.

In Matters Of Government, Justice Means Force As Well As Virtue.

Victory Is Not Always Winning The Battle...but Rising Every Time You Fall.

To Have Good Soldiers, A Nation Must Always Be At War.

Civilization Does Everything For The Mind And Favors It Entirely At The Expense Of The Body.

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

The Art Of War Is To Gain Time When Your Strength Is Inferior.

I May Be Accused Or Rashness, But Not Sluggishness.

One Bad General Is Worth Two Good Ones.

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

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.

Success Is The Most Convincing Talker In The World.

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

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

Un Croquis Vaut Mieux Qu

A Commander In Chief Ought To Say To Himself Several Times A Day: If The Enemy Should Appear On My Front, On My Right, On My Left, What Would I Do? And If The Question Finds Him Uncertain, He Is Not Well Placed, He Is Not As He Should Be, And He Should Remedy It.

Never Awake Me When You Have Good News To Announce, Because With Good News Nothing Presses; But When You Have Bad News, Arouse Me Immediately, For Then There Is Not An Instant To Be Lost.

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

Vengeance Has No Foresight.

A Leader Is A Dealer In Hope.

Ability Is Nothing Without Opportunity.

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

The Laws Of Circumstance Are Abolished By New Circumstances.

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

People Take England On Trust, And Repeat That Shakespeare Is The Greatest Of All Authors. I Have Read Him: There Is Nothing That Compares Racine Or Corneille: His Plays Are Unreadable, Pitiful.

Incidents Should Not Govern Policy; But, Policy Incidents.

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

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

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.

Much Shedding Of Blood, Many Great Actions, And Triumphs, Toil And Perseverance Are The End Of All Things Human.

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.

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

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

Sometimes A Great Example Is Necessary To All The Public Functionaries Of The State.

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

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

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

Democracy May Become Frenzied, But It Has Feelings And Can Be Moved. As For Aristocracy, It Is Always Cold And Never Forgives.

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

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

History Is Written By The Winners.

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

A Man Occupied With Public Or Other Important Business Cannot, And Need Not, Attend To Spelling.

In War As In Love, To Bring Matters To A Close, You Must Get Close Together.

Diplomacy Is The Police In Grand Costume.

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

To Be Believed Make The Truth Unbelievable.

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

If I Were An Englishman, I Should Esteem The Man Who Advised A War With China To Be The Greatest Living Enemy Of My Country. You Would Be Beaten In The End, And Perhaps A Revolution In India Would Follow.

The Leader's Role Is To Define Reality, Then Give Hope

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.

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

Those Who Are Free From Common Prejudices Acquire Others.

In War, Character And Opinion Make More Than Half Of The Reality.

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

Where The Government Is Weak, Military Sway Prevails.

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

Reconnaissance Memoranda Should Always Be Written In The Simplest Style And Be Purely Descriptive. They Should Never Stray From Their Objective By Introducing Extraneous Ideas.

You Would Make A Ship Sail Against The Winds And Currents By Lighting A Bonfire Under Her Decks? I Have No Time For Such Nonsense.

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

A True Man Hates No One.

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.

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.

Whatever May Be The Position In Life Of A Parent, It Is His Duty To Share His Crust With His Children. If You Want A Thing Done Well, Do It Yourself.

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

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

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

True Heroism Consists In Being Superior To The Ills Of Life, In Whatever Shape They May Challenge Us To Combat.

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

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

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

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

God Is On The Side Of The Heaviest Cannon.

The Fate Of War Is To Be Exalted In The Morning, And Low Enough At Night! There Is But One Step From Triumph To Ruin.

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