WIST Quotations

Napoleon Bonaparte -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Rascality has limits; stupidity has not.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
(Attributed)

Napoleon Bonaparte -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
(Attributed)

Napoleon Bonaparte -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:40:53 +0000

Do you know, Fontanes, what most amazes me in the world? The inability of force to maintain anything at all. There are only two powers in the world: the sword and the mind. In the long run, the sword is always defeated by the mind.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
(Attributed)

In Albert Camus, November 1939, Notebooks: 1935-1942 [tr. Thody (1963)]

Napoleon Bonaparte -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:35:35 +0000

The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemy’s.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
(Attributed)

Frequently misquoted, ungrammatically, as "... both his own and the enemies."

Napoleon Bonaparte -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:22:52 +0000

Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
(Attributed)

Often quoted by Andrew Jackson, to whom it is also attributed.

Napoleon Bonaparte -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:04:17 +0000

Ability is of little account without opportunity.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
(Attributed)

Quoted in The Homiletic Review (Nov 1895)

Napoleon Bonaparte -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 12:11:28 +0000

If you wish to keep your private affairs secret, keep your servants well paid.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
(Attributed)

Quoted in In the Words of Napoleon, tr. Daniel Savage Gray (1977).

Napoleon Bonaparte -- (Attributed)

Dave — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 13:38:26 +0000

One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
(Attributed)

An aphorism he frequently used. See Sophocles.

Napoleon Bonaparte -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 10 Apr 2020 17:10:26 +0000

Lead the ideas of your time and they will accompany and support you; fall behind them and they drag you along with them; oppose them and they will overwhelm you.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
(Attributed)
(Source)

Quoted, unsourced, in Jules Bertaut, Napoleon: In His Own Words [Virilités, maximes et pensées de Napoléon Bonaparte], ch. 4 (1916) [tr. Law and Rhodes].

Napoleon Bonaparte -- Memoirs of Napoleon by Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne (1829-1831)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

What is history but a fable agreed upon?

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
Memoirs of Napoleon by Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne (1829-1831)

Also attrib. to Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle.

Napoleon Bonaparte -- Observations sur les affaires d’Espagne (27 Aug 1808)

Dave — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:26:59 +0000

In war, three quarters turns on personal character and relations; the balance of manpower and materials counts only for the remaining quarter.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
Observations sur les affaires d’Espagne (27 Aug 1808)

Also translated: "In war, moral considerations make up three-quarters of the game; the relative balance of manpower accounts only for the remaining quarter." "Even in war moral power is to physical as three parts out of four." “Morale is to material as is the ratio of three to one.”

Napoleon Bonaparte -- Comment to the Abbé du Pradt (10 Dec 1812)

Dave — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 12:51:15 +0000

From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
Comment to the Abbé du Pradt (10 Dec 1812)
(Source)

During the retreat from Moscow, a repeated comment during a discussion with one of his ambassadors. Quoted by Archibald Alison, History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution in 1789, to the Restoration of the Bourbons in 1815, Vol. 16, ch. 73 (1842). See also Paine.

Alt. trans.:

"There is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous."
"There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous."
"From the sublime to the ridiculous there is but a step."

Napoleon Bonaparte -- Deathbed statement (17 Apr 1821)

Dave — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 16:42:02 +0000

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.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
Deathbed statement (17 Apr 1821)

Napoleon Bonaparte -- Letter to Baron von Stein, Dammartin le St. Père (7 Jan 1814)

Dave — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 13:11:18 +0000

Strategy is the art of making use of time and space. I am less chary of the latter than the former. Space we can recover, lost time never.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
Letter to Baron von Stein, Dammartin le St. Père (7 Jan 1814)

Alt. trans.: "One always has a chance of recovering lost ground, but lost time -- never."

Napoleon Bonaparte -- Letter to Eugène Beauharnais (27 Feb 1806)

Dave — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 15:12:34 +0000

The art consists in making others work rather than in wearing oneself out.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
Letter to Eugène Beauharnais (27 Feb 1806)

Napoleon Bonaparte -- Letter to Louis Alexandre Berthier (11 Nov 1798), in Correspondence Napoleon, Vol 5, #3605 [ed. Henri Plon (1861)]

Dave — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 19:28:04 +0000

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. The poor wretches say anything that comes into their mind and what they think the interrogator wishes to know.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
Letter to Louis Alexandre Berthier (11 Nov 1798), in Correspondence Napoleon, Vol 5, #3605 [ed. Henri Plon (1861)]
(Source)

Napoleon Bonaparte -- Letter to Talleyrand (26 Sep 1797)

Dave — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:24:13 +0000

All great events hang by a single thread. The clever man takes advantage of everything, neglects nothing that may give him some added opportunity; the less clever man, by neglecting one thing, sometimes misses everything.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
Letter to Talleyrand (26 Sep 1797)

Napoleon Bonaparte -- Letter to Talleyrand (4 Jul 1802)

Dave — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:04:33 +0000

The first qualification of a diplomat is the ability to keep silent.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
Letter to Talleyrand (4 Jul 1802)

Napoleon Bonaparte -- Letter to Tallyrand (7 Oct 1797)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

It is only a step from victory to disaster. My experience is that, in a crisis, some detail always decides the issue.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
Letter to Tallyrand (7 Oct 1797)
(Source)

Napoleon's Letters [tr. J. M. Thompson (1934)]

Napoleon Bonaparte -- Letter to the Executive Directory (16 Apr. 1797)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

He who fears losing his reputation is sure to lose it.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
Letter to the Executive Directory (16 Apr. 1797)

The Bonaparte Letters and Despatches, Vol II (1846), p. 299 "The Third Plan": "But he who fears to lose his glory is sure to lose it."

Napoleon Bonaparte -- Remarks to Emanuel Las Cases (14 Nov 1816)

Dave — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 13:58:52 +0000

A consecutive series of great actions never is the result of chance and luck; it is always the product of planning and genius. … Is it because they are lucky that they have become great? No, but by being great, they have been able to master luck.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
Remarks to Emanuel Las Cases (14 Nov 1816)

In The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection from His Written and Spoken Words, ch. 56 [ed. J. Herold (1955)]

Napoleon Bonaparte -- Statement (4 Mar 1806)

Dave — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 14:11:11 +0000

I do not see in religion the mystery of the incarnation, but the mystery of the social order; religion attaches to heaven an idea of equality that stops the rich from being massacred by the poor.

[Quant à moi, je ne vois pas dans la religion le mystère de l’incarnation, mais le mystère de l’ordre social; elle rattache au ciel une idée d’égalité qui empêche que le riche ne soit massacré par le pauvre.]

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
Statement (4 Mar 1806)
(Source)

Quoted in Opinions de Napoléon sur divers sujets de politique et d'administration, recueillies par un membre de son conseil d'état (1833).