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The Nature Of Christ Is, I Grant It, From One End To Another, A Web Of Mysteries; But This Mysteriousness Does Not Correspond To The Difficulties Which All Existence Contains. Let It Be Rejected, And The Whole World Is An Enigma; Let It Be Accepted, And We Possess A Wonderful Explanation Of The History Of Man.

-Napoleon Bonaparte

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The Nature Of Christ

Napoleon Bonaparte

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The Nature Of Christ Is, I Grant It, From One End To Another, A Web Of Mysteries; But This Mysteriousness Does Not Correspond To The Difficulties Which All Existence Contains. Let It Be Rejected, And The Whole World Is An Enigma; Let It Be Accepted, And We Possess A Wonderful Explanation Of The History Of Man.

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

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

A Man Does Not Have Himself Killed For A Half-pence A Day Or For A Petty Distinction. You Must Speak To The Soul In Order To Electrify Him

Imagination Governs The World.

From The Heights Of These Pyramids, Forty Centuries Look Down On Us.

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.

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

The Only Victory Over Love Is Flight.

There Is No Strength Without Justice.

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.

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.

Never Tell Your Enemy He Is Doing The Wrong Thing.

Soldiers! Here Is The Battle You Have So Long Desired! Henceforth Victory Depends On You; We Have Need Of It.

I Engage And After That I See What To Do.

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

The Secret Of War Lies In The Communications.

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.

War Is 90% Information.

To Understand The Man You Have To Know What Was Happening In The World When He Was Twenty.

Ordinarily Men Exercise Their Memory Much More Than Their Judgment.

Greatness Be Nothing Unless It Be Lasting.

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

The Implements To Him Who Can Handle Them.

Religion Is, In Fact, The Dominion Of The Soul; It Is The Hope, The Anchor Of Safety, The Deliverance From Evil. What A Service Has Christianity Rendered To Humanity!

They Wanted Me To Be A Washington.

The Stupid Speak Of The Past, The Wise Of The Present, And Fools Of The Future.

I Generally Had To Give In.

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

Character Is Victory Organized.

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.

Secrets Travel Fast In Paris.

Wherever Flowers Cannot Be Reared, There Man Cannot Live.

Medicine Is A Collection Of Uncertain Prescriptions, The Results Of Which, Taken Collectively, Are More Fatal Than Useful To Mankind.

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

Great Men Are Never Cruel Without Necessity.

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.

The Purely Defensive Is Doomed To Defeat.

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.

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

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

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.

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

It Is Cowardice To Commit Suicide.

I Cannot Approve Of Your Method Of Operation, You Proceed Like A Bewildered Idiot, Taking Not The Least Notice Of My Orders.

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

Morality Has Nothing To Do With Such A Man As I Am.

The Laws Of Circumstance Are Abolished By New Circumstances.

The Worse The Man, The Better The Soldier.

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 Man Fitted For Affairs And Authority Never Considers Individuals, But Things And Their Consequences.

I Made All My Generals Out Of Mud.

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

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

I Wish I Could Take A Raincheck On June 18.1815

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

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

War,--the Trade Of Barbarians!

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

Among Those Who Dislike Oppression Are Many Who Like To Oppress.

A Cowardly Act! What Do I Care About That? You May Be Sure That I Should Never Fear To Commit One If It Were To My Advantage.

Republican Despotism Is More Fertile In Acts Of Tyranny, Because Everyone Has A Hand In It.

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

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

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You Cannot Treat With All The World At Once.

Liberty Is A Need Felt By A Small Class Of People Whom Nature Has Endowed With Nobler Minds Than The Mass Of Men;.... Consequently, It May Be Repressed With Impunity. Equality, On The Other Hand, Pleases The Masses.

Those Who Have Changed The Universe Have Never Done It By Changing Officials, But Always By Inspiring The People.

I Don't Employ Talleyrand When I Want A Thing Done, But Only When I Want To Have The Appearance Of Wanting To Do It.

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I Start Out By Believing The Worst

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Glory Is Fleeting, But Obscurity Is Forever.

The Most Dangerous Moment Comes With Victory.

Greatest Victory

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

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

I Like Honest Men Of All Colors.

Men Who Have Changed The World Never Achieved Their Success By Winning The Chief Citizens To Their Side, But Always By Stirring The Masses.

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

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

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

I Fear Three Newspapers More Than A Hundred Thousand Bayonets.

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

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.

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

Thinking Of You

The Friendship Of A Great Man Is A Favor Of The Gods.

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

Monetary System

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

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

Broken Promises

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Fools Have A Great Advantage Over The Wise; They Are Always Self-satisfied.

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If You Set Out To Take Vienna, Take Vienna.

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.

A Society Without Religion Is Like A Vessel Without Compass.

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.

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

As To Moral Courage, I Have Very Rarely Met With The Two O'clock In The Morning Kind. I Mean Unprepared Courage, That Which Is Necessary On An Unexpected Occasion, And Which, In Spite Of The Most Unforeseen Events, Leaves Full Freedom Of Judgement And Decision.

The Human Race Is Governed By Its Imagination.

The Superior Man Is Never In Anyone's Way.

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

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

You Do Not Get Peace By Shouting: Peace. Peace Is A Meaningless Word; What We Need Is A Glorious Peace.

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

When Soldiers Have Been Baptized In The Fire Of A Battle-field, They Have All One Rank In My Eyes.

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

All Things Proclaim The Existence Of God.

Existence Of God

In Russia There Are No Roads - Only Areas.

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

Impossible Things

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

In Our Time No One Has The Conception Of What Is Great. It Is Up To Me To Show Them.

War Is Ninety Percent Information.

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.

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

Men, In General, Are But Great Children.

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

We Should Always Go Before Our Enemies With Confidence, Otherwise Our Apparent Uneasiness Inspires Them With Greater Boldness.

Nothing Is So Important In War As An Undivided Command.

Space We Can Recover; Time Never.

Procrastination

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.

The Purpose Of Religion Is To Keep The Poor From Killing The Rich.

Ability Is Nothing Without Opportunity.

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

The Emperor Died Forsaken By All, On This Horrible Rock. (st. Helena) His Death Struggle Was Awful!

Men Have Their Virtues And Their Vices, Their Heroisms And Their Perversities; Men Are Neither Wholly Good Nor Wholly Bad, But Possess And Practice All That There Is Of Good And Bad Here Below. Such Is The General Rule. Temperament, Education, The Accidents Of Life, Are Modifying Factors. Outside Of This, Everything Is Ordered Arrangement, Everything Is Chance. Such Has Been My Rule Of Expectation And It Has Usually Brought Me Success.

A Well-composed Song Strikes The Mind And Softens The Feelings, And Produces A Greater Effect Than A Moral Work, Which Convinces Our Reason, But Does Not Warm Our Feelings, Nor Effect The Slightest Alteration In Our Habits

We Walk Faster When We Walk Alone.

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.

A Man Who Has No Consideration For The Needs Of His Men Ought Never To Be Given Command.

Sire, I Am My Own Rudolph Of Hapsburg.

Diplomacy Is The Police In Grand Costume.

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 Do Not Amuse Myself By Thinking Of Dead People.

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.

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

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.

Occupation Is The Scythe Of Time.

Public Instruction Should Be The First Object Of Government.

We Must Laugh At Man To Avoid Crying For Him.

Unite For The Public Safety, If You Would Remain An Independent Nation.

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.

The Basic Principle That We Must Follow In Directing The Armies Of The Republic Is This: That They Must Feed Themselves On War At The Expense Of The Enemy Territory.

After Making A Mistake Or Suffering A Misfortune, The Man Of Genius Always Gets Back On His Feet.

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

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

To Negotiate Is Not To Do As One Likes.

A Legislator Must Know How To Take Advantage Of Even The Defects Of Those He Wants To Govern. The Art Consists In Making Others Work Rather Than In Wearing Oneself Out.

War Must Be Made As Intense And Awful As Possible In Order To Make It Short, And Thus To Diminish Its Horrors.

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.

We Are Born, We Live, We Die Among Supernatural.

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.

Victory Belongs To The Most Persevering.

Jesus Chris Was More Than Man.

Do You Know What Amazes Me More Than Anything Else? The Impotence Of Force To Organize Anything.

There Is Only One Favorable Moment In War; Talent Consists In Knowing How To Seize It.

All The Great Captains Have Performed Vast Achievements By Conforming With The Rules Of Art--by Adjusting Efforts To Obstacles.

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

I Love Power. But It Is As An Artist That I Love It. I Love It As A Musician Loves His Violin, To Draw Out Its Sounds And Chords And Harmonies.

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

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

Europe Thus Divided Into Nationalities Freely Formed And Free Internally, Peace Between States Would Have Become Easier: The United States Of Europe Would Become A Possibility.

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.

The Tools Belong To The Man Who Can Use Them.

Men Are Led By Trifles.

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

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

So You Think The Police Foresees And Knows Everything. The Police Invents More Than It Discovers.

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

There Is A Joy In Danger.

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

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

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

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.

England Is A Nation Of Shopkeepers.

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

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

Put Your Iron Hand In A Velvet Glove.

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