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The Laws Of Circumstance Are Abolished By New Circumstances.

-Napoleon Bonaparte

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The Laws Of Circumstance

Napoleon Bonaparte

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The Laws Of Circumstance Are Abolished By New Circumstances.

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

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

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

Revolutions Are Like The Most Noxious Dungheaps, Which Bring Into Life The Noblest Vegetables.

The Art Of Land Warfare Is An Art Of Genius, Of Inspiration. On The Sea Nothing Is Genius Or Inspiration; Everything Is Positive Or Empiric.

Timid And Cowardly Soldiers Cause The Loss Of A Nation's Independence; But Pusillanimous Magistrates Destroy The Empire Of The Laws, The Rights Of The Throne, And Even Social Order Itself.

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

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!

Leaders Have To Be Dealers In Hope.

There Are Only Two Forces That Unite Men - Fear And Interest.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.]

You Cannot Treat With All The World At Once.

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

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!

It Is Exceptional And Difficult To Find In One Man All The Qualities Necessary For A Great General.

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

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!

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

A Constitution Should Be Short And Obscure.

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

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

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.

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

Self Improvement

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.

Impossible Is The Word Found Only In A Fool's Dictionary. Wise People Create Opportunities For Themselves And Make Everything Possible.

In Time Of Revolution, With Perseverance And Courage, A Soldier Should Think Nothing Impossible.

Cavalry Is Useful Before, During, And After The Battle.

War Is Like Government, A Matter Of Tact.

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

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

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?

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

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

A Man Cannot Become An Atheist Merely By Wishing It.

You May Ask Me For Anything You Like Except Time.

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

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

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

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.

A Faithful Friend Is The True Image Of The Deity.

Man, Not Men, Is The Most Important Consideration.

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.

Time Is The Great Art Of Man.

My Generals Are A Parcel Of Post Inspectors.

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

Soldiers! Forty Centuries Behold You!

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.

Public Esteem Is The Recompense Of Honest Men.

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

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

The Extent Of Your Consciousness Is Limited Only By Your Ability To Love And To Embrace With Your Love The Space Around You, And All It Contains.

Ability To Love

Two Armies Are Two Bodies Which Meet And Try To Frighten Each Other.

Nothing Is More Arrogant Than The Weakness Which Feels Itself Supported By Power.

A Nation Recruits Men More Easily Than It Can Retrieve Its Honour.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Medicines Are Only Fit For Old People.

A Soul You Say? Give My Pocketwatch To A Savage And He'll Think It Has A Soul.

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 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.

There Shall Be No Alps.

Wherever Flowers Cannot Be Reared, There Man Cannot Live.

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

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

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.

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.

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

I Would Rather Suffer With Coffee Than Be Senseless.

The French Complain Of Everything, And Always.

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

Adversity Is The Midwife Of Genius

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

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.

Strong Coffee, Much Strong Coffee, Is What Awakens Me. Coffee Gives Me Warmth, Waking, An Unusual Force And A Pain That Is Not Without Very Great Pleasure.

It Is Necessary For The Heart To Feel As For The Body To Be Fed.

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.

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

Wisdom And Policy Dictate That We Must Do As Destiny Demands And Keep Peace With The Irresistible March Of Events.

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

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

Military Despotism Represses Generous Sentiments, Priestly Tyranny Stifles Them.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

An Emperor Confides In National Soldiers, Not In Mercenaries.

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

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.

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

We Walk Faster When We Walk Alone.

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

A Form Of Government That Is Not The Result Of A Long Sequence Of Shared Experiences, Efforts, And Endeavors Can Never Take Root.

The Worse The Man, The Better The Soldier.

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

Rascality Has Limits; Stupidity Has Not.

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

Each State Claims The Right To Control Interests Foreign To Itself When Those Interests Are Such That It Can Control Them Without Putting Its Own Interests In Danger. ... Other Powers Only Recognize This Right Of Intervening In Proportion As The Country Doing It Has The Power To Do It.

My Business Is To Succeed, And I’m Good At It. I Create My Iliad By My Actions, Create It Day By Day.

Character Is Victory Organized.

Who Saves His Country Violates No Law.

A Portion Of The Multitude Must Ever Be Coerced.

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

The Great Art Of Governing Consists In Not Letting Men Grow Old In Their Jobs.

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

The Tools Belong To The Man Who Can Use Them.

In Russia There Are No Roads - Only Areas.

Power Is Founded Upon Opinion.

Where The Government Is Weak, Military Sway Prevails.

The Greatest General Is He Who Makes The Fewest Mistakes.

Imagination Governs The World.

A Woman Laughing Is A Woman Conquered.

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?

It Is Neither Holy, Roman Or An Empire.

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

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

A General Must Be A Charlatan.

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

Flatterers And Men Of Learning Do Not Accord Well With Each Other.

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

There Is Only One Thing In This World, And That Is To Keep Acquiring Money And More Money, Power And More Power. All The Rest Is Meaningless.

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

As For Myself, I Do Not Believe That Such A Person As Jesus Christ Ever Existed; But As The People Are Inclined To Superstition, It Is Proper Not To Oppose Them.

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

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

Men Are Lead By Trifles.

I Engage And After That I See What To Do.

Prussia Was Hatched From A Cannon-ball.

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.

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

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.

There Is No Such Thing As Accident; It Is Fate Misnamed.

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

Half Of The People In The World Are Below Average.

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

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

No One But Myself Can Be Blamed For My Fall. I Have Been My Own Greatest Enemy-the Cause Of My Own Disastrous Fate.

Champagne! In Victory, One Deserves It; In Defeat One Needs It.

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

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

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

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

Men, In General, Are But Great Children.

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.

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

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.

History Is A Myth That Men Agree To Believe.

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

Thinking Of You

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Impossible Things

Better To Have An Open Enemy, Than Hidden Friends.

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!

I Have Never Loved Anyone For Love's Sake Except, Perhaps, Josephine - A Little.

The Implements To Him Who Can Handle Them.

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

Keep A Good Table And Attend To The Ladies.

There Is No Nation However Small Which Had The Right To Set Itself Free, That Has Not Rescued Itself From The Dishonour Of Obeying The Prince Imposed By An Enemy In The Hour Of Victory.

How Many Really Capable Men Are Children More Than Once During The Day!

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

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.

Act Swiftly And Vigorously, Without 'buts' And 'ifs'.

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

Religion Is Excellent Stuff For Keeping Common People Quiet.

As A Rule It Is Circumstances That Make Men.

Providence Is Always On The Side Of The Last Reserve.

Read Over And Over Again The Campaigns Of Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Turenne, Eugene And Frederic. ... This Is The Only Way To Become A Great General And Master The Secrets Of The Art Of War.

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

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

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

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

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.

God! How Men Of Letters Are Stupid.

We Live And Die In The Midst Of Marvels.

Whatever Misanthropists May Say, Ingrates And The Perverse Are Exceptions In The Human Species.

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

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

To Negotiate Is Not To Do As One Likes.

Great Men Are Never Cruel Without Necessity.

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