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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
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With audacity one can undertake anything, but not do everything.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Medicines are only fit for old people.
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There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.
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It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.
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Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.
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The French complain of everything, and always.
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The infectiousness of crime is like that of the plague.
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I made all my generals out of mud.
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Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
Napoleon Bonaparte
There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Napoleon Bonaparte
History is a set of lies agreed upon.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Forethought we may have, undoubtedly, but not foresight.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Throw off your worries when you throw off your clothes at night.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.
Napoleon Bonaparte
The word impossible is not in my dictionary.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.
Napoleon Bonaparte
The best way to keep one's word is not to give it.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Ability is nothing without opportunity.
Napoleon Bonaparte
You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy's ranks.
Napoleon Bonaparte
If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.
Napoleon Bonaparte
From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.
Napoleon Bonaparte
All religions have been made by men.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Women are nothing but machines for producing children.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.
Napoleon Bonaparte
In politics stupidity is not a handicap.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.
Napoleon Bonaparte
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.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.
Napoleon Bonaparte
If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.
Napoleon Bonaparte
To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.
Napoleon Bonaparte
I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.
Napoleon Bonaparte
If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.
Napoleon Bonaparte
England is a nation of shopkeepers.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.
Napoleon Bonaparte
The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.
Napoleon Bonaparte
An army marches on its stomach.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.
Napoleon Bonaparte
When soldiers have been baptized in the fire of a battle-field, they have all one rank in my eyes.
Napoleon Bonaparte
The human race is governed by its imagination.
Napoleon Bonaparte
We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Ambition never is in a greater hurry that I; it merely keeps pace with circumstances and with my general way of thinking.
Napoleon Bonaparte
The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.
Napoleon Bonaparte
One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent.
Napoleon Bonaparte
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
Respect the burden.
Napoleon Bonaparte
He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.
Napoleon Bonaparte
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.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
Napoleon Bonaparte