976 Quotes by Napoleon Bonaparte

You do not get peace by shouting: Peace. Peace is a meaningless word; what we need is a glorious peace.

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.

The most desirable quality in a soldier is constancy in the support of fatigue; valor is only secondary.

Men are ruled by toys.

Republican despotism is more fertile in acts of tyranny, because everyone has a hand in it.

Music of all the arts has the most influence on the passions and the legislator should give it the greatest encouragement.

One must indeed be ignorant of the methods of genius to suppose that it allows itself to be cramped by forms. Forms are for mediocrity, and it is fortunate that mediocrity can act only according to routine. Ability takes its flight unhindered.

If you wage war, do it energetically and with severity. This is the only way to make it shorter and consequently less inhuman.

Adversity is the midwife of genius