Top 100 Quotes About Bonaparte: Famous Quotes & Sayings About Bonaparte

#1. The monster has escaped Elba!" "The tyrant has landed at Cannes!" "Bonaparte meets the troops." "Napoleon approaches Paris." "His Imperial Majesty has entered the capital.

David Frum

#2. Europeans are forever the offspring of Machiavelli, trapped in a historical rollercoaster that can bring us a monarchy-toppling French Revolution and then a few years later Napoleon Bonaparte as emperor.

Loretta Napoleoni

#3. There is not a power in Europe, no not even Bonaparte's that is so unlimited [as the British monarchy].

Charles James Fox

#4. History is a creative process (or as Napoleon Bonaparte once said, "a set of lies agreed upon"). The world happens as it happens, but we construct what we remember and what we forget. And people will eventually do that to us, too.

Chuck Klosterman

#5. France, freed from that monster, Bonaparte, must again become the most agreeable country on earth. It would be the second choice of all whose ties of family and fortune give a preference to some other one, and the first choice of all not under those ties.

Thomas Jefferson

#6. The popular image [in England] of Bonaparte as a blood-stained tyrant and bandit was admittedly exaggerated, but instinct told even the most radical among the English that if liberty, equality, and justice were ever to come to their shores, it certainly was not Napoleon who would bring them there.

J. Christopher Herold

#7. His thoughts-if you can use that word about a dog, particularly one as stupid as Bonaparte-were simply fixed, with absolute determination, upon the distant horizon, and he was not going to stop until he had reached it.

Jonathan Coe

#8. I once read that there are more biographical works about Napoleon Bonaparte than any other man in history.

Michael Dirda

#9. I try to paint from life, but I had such a miserable experience with Bonaparte, who wouldn't sit still and kept mumbling about catching a cold and something incoherent about Wellington , so I finally decided to work from photos.

Roman Genn

#10. I think one of the few times I've been involved with real-life characters was the story of Marie Bonaparte. I think it's really difficult to become someone that really existed.

Catherine Deneuve

#11. To all those unfortunate men who are widowers, I throw the sublime proclamation of Bonaparte to the army of Italy: Soldiers, you are in need of everything; the enemy has it.

Victor Hugo

#12. Neurotics, proceed with delusions of grandeur. Napoleon Bonaparte, take the lead. Jesus Christ, bring up the rear. Simulate severe depression. Non-communicative with repressed hostility.

Samuel R. Delany

#13. The Revolution was a lesson in the power of evil to replace idealism, and Bonaparte was its ideal pupil.

Paul Johnson

#14. We believe no more in Bonaparte's fighting merely for the liberties of the seas than in Great Britain's fighting for the liberties of mankind. The object is the same, to draw to themselves the power, the wealth and the resources of other nations.

Thomas Jefferson

#15. As Bonaparte would sigh centuries later, it takes very few defeats to unmake a self-made man.

Derek Leebaert

#16. Bonaparte knew but one merit, and rewarded in one and the same way the good soldier, the good astronomer, the good poet, the good player.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

#17. Where everyman is participator in the government of affairs, not merely at an election one day in the year but everyday, he will let the heart be torn out of his body sooner than his power be wrested from him by a Caesar or a Bonaparte.

Thomas Jefferson

#18. It was 1953, and I was still at school. I'd borrowed a silent French film from the library for my 9.5mm projector. It was by Jean Epstein, and it was awful. So I rang the library and asked if they had anything else. They said they had 'Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Revolution.'

Kevin Brownlow

#19. We prayed these wars would end all wars
In war we know is no romance.
(Done With Bonaparte)

Mark Knopfler

#20. Bonaparte's wish is Peace, nay that he is afraid of war to the last degree.

Charles James Fox

#21. I always thought I was Jeanne d'Arc and Bonaparte. How little one knows oneself.

Charles De Gaulle

#22. The Princess Borghese, Bonaparte's sister, who was no saint, sat to Canova as a reclining Venus, and being asked if she did not feel a little uncomfortable, replied, "No. There was a fire in the room."

William Hazlitt

#23. Political scientists have often described Gaullism as a sort of Bonapartism. I myself have occasionally compared Sarkozy to Napoleon Bonaparte.

Max Gallo

#24. Marius saw in Bonaparte the dazzling spectre which will always rise upon the frontier, and which will guard the future. Despot but dictator; a despot resulting from a republic and summing up a revolution. Napoleon became for him the man-people as Jesus Christ is the man-God.

Victor Hugo

#25. Amy wondered if Bonaparte could declare war on Miss Gwen alone without breaking his peace with England

Lauren Willig

#26. Linnaeus, setting out for Lapland, surveys his "comb" and "spare shirt," "leathern breeches" and "gauze cap to keep off gnats," with as much complacency as Bonaparte a park of artillery for the Russian campaign. The quiet bravery of the man is admirable.

Henry David Thoreau

#27. [To Bonaparte, when asked why she meddled in politics:] Sire, when women have their heads cut off, it is but just they should know the reason.

Madame De Stael

#28. Space we can recover, time never. Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821

Robert Greene

#29. Trying to out-guess Bonaparte; the thought makes my blood run cold.

Naomi Novik

#30. The three-o'-clock in the morning courage, which Bonaparte thought was the rarest.

Henry David Thoreau

#31. Could it be that the great Bonaparte is incapable of fathering a child? that it is not I who am at fault but you?

Carolly Erickson

#32. Force cannot organize anything.In the long run, the sword is always beaten by the spirit by which I mean the civil and religious institutions of a nation.
Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#33. What is history but a fable agreed upon?
Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte

#34. History paints the human heart.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#35. Men are led by trifles.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#36. There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#37. A king is sometimes obliged to commit crimes; but they are the crimes of his position.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#38. Without cavalry, battles are without result.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#39. Our hour is marked, and no one can claim a moment of life beyond what fate has predestined.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#40. Obedience to public authority ought not to be based either on ignorance or stupidity.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#41. Water, air, and cleanness are the chief articles in my pharmacy.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#42. History is a myth that men agree to believe.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#43. Nothing is so important in war as an undivided command.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#44. Conquests will come and go but Delambre's work will endure.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#45. The leader's role is to define reality, then give hope

Napoleon Bonaparte

#46. Pure politics is merely the calculus of combinations and of chances.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#47. While I live I will never resort to irredeemable paper.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#48. The Allied Powers having proclaimed that the Emperor Napoleon is the sole obstacle to the re-establishment of peace in Europe, he, faithful to his oath, declares that he is ready to descend from the throne, to quit France, and even to relinquish life, for the good of his country.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#49. War must be made as intense and awful as possible in order to make it short, and thus to diminish its horrors.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#50. A man is not dependent upon his fellow creature, when he does not fear death.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#51. My success and everything good that I have done, I owe to my mother.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#52. True character stands the test of emergencies. Do not be mistaken, it is weakness from which the awakening is rude.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#53. If you build an army of 100 lions and their leader is a dog, in any fight, the lions will die like a dog. But if you build an army of 100 dogs and their leader is a lion, all dogs will fight as a lion

Napoleon Bonaparte

#54. Conscription is the vitality of a nation, the purification of its morality, and the real foundations of all its habits

Napoleon Bonaparte

#55. Once you have made up your mind, stick to it; there is no longer any 'if' or 'but'.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#56. An army of lions commanded by a deer will never be an army of lions.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#57. In a conquered country benevolence is not humanitarianism. It is a general political axiom that a conqueror must not inspire a good opinion of his benevolence until he has demonstrated that he can be severe with malefactors.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#58. 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

Napoleon Bonaparte

#59. Men who have changed the world never achieved their success by winning the chief citizens to their side, but always by stirring the masses.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#60. A constitution should be framed so as not to impede the action of government, nor force the government to its violation.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#61. The only true conquests-those that awaken no regrets- are those obtained over our ignorance.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#62. The policies of all powers are inherent in their geography.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#63. 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.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#64. He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#65. 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.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#66. Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#67. You cannot treat with all the world at once.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#68. I may lose a battle but I will never lose a minute.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#69. 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.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#70. I should see an enemy of my country in any one who would change by force that which has been established by law.

Louis Bonaparte

#71. That man made me miss my destiny.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#72. The great art of governing consists in not letting men grow old in their jobs.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#73. 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.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#74. The infectiousness of crime is like that of the plague.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#75. It is not by whining that one carries out the job of king.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#76. Chess is too difficult to be a game and not serious enough to be a science or an art.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#77. In war, as in love, we must come into contact before we triumph.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#78. If I always appear prepared, it is because before entering an undertaking, I have meditated long and have foreseen what might occur. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly and secretly what I should do in circumstances unexpected by others; it is thought and preparation

Napoleon Bonaparte

#79. War is ninety percent information.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#80. With audacity one can undertake anything, but not do everything.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#81. 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.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#82. Everything is more or less organized matter. To think so is against religion, but I think so just the same.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#83. Ordinary men died, men of iron were taken prisoner: I only brought back with me men of bronze.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#84. Nothing is more arrogant than the weakness which feels itself supported by power.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#85. Medicine is a collection of uncertain prescriptions, the results of which, taken collectively, are more fatal than useful to mankind.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#86. When a man is a favorite of Fortune she never takes him unawares, and, however astonishing her favors may be, she finds him ready.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#87. Democracy may become frenzied, but it has feelings and can be moved. As for aristocracy, it is always cold and never forgives.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#88. It is not set speeches at the moment of battle that render soldiers brave.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#89. God has given me the will and the force to overcome all obstacles.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#90. It is not necessary to bury the truth. It is sufficient merely to delay it until nobody cares.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#91. Love is the occupation of the idle man, the amusement of a busy one, and the shipwreck of a sovereign.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#92. 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.

Napoleon Bonaparte