Napoleon Bonaparte, later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French emperor and military commander who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars.

Napoleon I Quotes

1. “Courage isn’t having the strength to go on – it is going on when you don’t have strength.”
— Napoleon

2. “History is written by the winners.”
— Napoleon

3. “If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.”
— Napoleon

4. “The world suffers a lot. Not because the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of the good people.”
— Napoleon

5. “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
— Napoleon

6. “Victory belongs to the most persevering.”
— Napoleon

7. “Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action comes, stop thinking and go in.”
— Napoleon

8. “A leader is a dealer in hope.”
— Napoleon

9. “History is a set of lies agreed upon.”
— Napoleon

10. “The best cure for the body is a quiet mind.”
— Napoleon

11. “Until you spread your wings, you’ll have no idea how far you can fly.”
— Napoleon

12. “Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.”
— Napoleon

13. “Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”
— Napoleon

14. “There is a joy in danger.”
— Napoleon

15. “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

16. “Great men are meteors designed to burn so that earth may be lighted.”
— Napoleon

17. “Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.”
— Napoleon

18. “The amateurs discuss tactics: the professionals discuss logistics.”
— Napoleon

19. “A woman laughing is a woman conquered.”
— Napoleon

20. “The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it.”
— Napoleon

21. “Courage is like love, it must have hope for nourishment.”
— Napoleon

22. “Give me an educated mother, I shall promise you the birth of a civilized, educated nation.”
— Napoleon

23. “I see only my objective – the obstacles must give way.”
— Napoleon

24. “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
— Napoleon

25. “Music is what tell us that the human race is greater than we realize.”
— Napoleon

26. “Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”
— Napoleon

27. “There are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind.”
— Napoleon

28. “The reason most people fail instead of succeed is they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment.”
— Napoleon

29. “Every hour of lost time is a chance of future misfortune.”
— Napoleon

30. “We are either kings or pawns of men.”
— Napoleon

31. “Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.”
— Napoleon

32. “Men are Moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.”
— Napoleon

33. “Never interfere with an enemy in the process of destroying himself.”
— Napoleon

34. “Give Me a Turkish Army. I will Conquer world.”
— Napoleon

35. “He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.”
— Napoleon

36. “The only conquests that are permanent and leave no regrets are our conquests over ourselves.”
— Napoleon

37. “Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”
— Napoleon

38. “You can not lead a battle if you think you look silly on a horse.”
— Napoleon

39. “Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence.”
— Napoleon

40. “I may lose a battle but I will never lose a minute.”
— Napoleon

41. “Let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.”
— Napoleon

42. “The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.”
— Napoleon

43. “You don’t reason with intellectuals. You shoot them.”
— Napoleon

44. “The word impossible is not in my dictionary.”
— Napoleon

45. “Ability is nothing without opportunity.”
— Napoleon

46. “Imagination governs the world.”
— Napoleon

47. “The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies.”
— Napoleon

48. “When you set out to take Vienna, take Vienna.”
— Napoleon

49. “I start out by believing the worst.”
— Napoleon

50. “If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.”
— Napoleon

51. “An army marches on its stomach.”
— Napoleon

52. “Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.”
— Napoleon

53. “One must change one’s tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one’s superiority.”
— Napoleon

54. “A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights. Men are moved by only two mechanisms: fear and self-interest. Victory belongs to the most persevering.”
— Napoleon

55. “I saw the crown of France laying on the ground, so I picked it up with my sword.”
— Napoleon

56. “The leader’s role is to define reality, then give hope.”
— Napoleon

57. “Impossible is the word found only in a fool’s dictionary. Wise people create opportunities for themselves and make everything possible…”
— Napoleon

58. “It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.”
— Napoleon

59. “In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”
— Napoleon

60. “A great people may be killed, but they cannot be intimidated.”
— Napoleon

61. “Remember, gentlemen, what a Roman emperor said: The corpse of an enemy always smells sweet.”
— Napoleon

62. “Courage cannot be counterfeited. It is one virtue that escapes hypocrisy.”
— Napoleon

63. “It’s the unconquerable soul of man, and not the nature of the weapon he uses, that ensures victory.”
— Napoleon

64. “Strong coffee, much strong coffee, is what awakens me. Coffee gives me warmth, waking, an unusual force and a pain that is not without very great pleasure.”
— Napoleon

65. “As for me, to love you alone, to make you happy, to do nothing which would contradict your wishes, this is my destiny and the meaning of my life.”
— Napoleon

66. “I know he’s a good general, but is he lucky?”
— Napoleon

67. “If the Earth were a single state, Istanbul would be its capital.”
— Napoleon

68. “The first quality of a soldier is constancy in enduring fatigue and hardship. Courage is only the second. Poverty privation and want are the school of the good soldier.”
— Napoleon

69. “The only victories which leave no regret are those which are gained over ignorance.”
— Napoleon

70. “Give me enough medals and I’ll win you any war.”
— Napoleon

71. “A starving army is actually worse than none.”
— Napoleon

72. “The laws of circumstance are abolished by new circumstances.”
— Napoleon

73. “In war, men are nothing, one man is everything.”
— Napoleon

74. “Envy is a declaration of inferiority.”
— Napoleon

75. “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.”
— Napoleon

76. “It is an approved maxim in war, never to do what the enemy wishes you to do, for this reason alone, that he desires it.”
— Napoleon

77. “Champagne! In victory, one deserves it; in defeat one needs it.”
— Napoleon

78. “You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy’s ranks.”
— Napoleon

79. “Between a battle lost and a battle won, the distance is immense and there stand empires.”
— Napoleon

80. “The Jews are the master robbers of the modern age.”
— Napoleon

81. “I have come to realise that men are not born to be free.”
— Napoleon

82. “Diplomacy is the police in grand costume.”
— Napoleon

83. “There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.”
— Napoleon

84. “Put your iron hand in a velvet glove.”
— Napoleon

85. “The only victory over love is flight.”
— Napoleon

86. “You cannot stop me; I spend thirty thousand men a month.”
— Napoleon

87. “The best generals are those who have served in the artillery.”
— Napoleon

88. “Men will risk their lives, even die for ribbons.”
— Napoleon

89. “A great reputation is a great noise, the more there is of it, and the further does it swell. Land, monuments, Nations, all fall, but the noise remains, and will reach to other generations.”
— Napoleon

90. “Where the Government is weak, military sway prevails.”
— Napoleon

91. “After me, the Revolution – or, rather the ideas which formed it – will resume their course. It will be like a book from which the marker is removed, and one starts to read again at the page where one left off.”
— Napoleon

92. “Prussia was hatched from a cannon-ball.”
— Napoleon

93. “I have so often been mistaken that I no longer blush for it.”
— Napoleon

94. “I have never loved anyone for love’s sake except, perhaps, Josephine – a little.”
— Napoleon

95. “In war, the general alone can judge of certain arrangements. It depends on him alone to conquer difficulties by his own superior talents and resolution.”
— Napoleon

96. “In war, the moral is to the physical as three is to one.”
— Napoleon

97. “The worse the man the better the soldier. If soldiers be not corrupt they ought to be made so.”
— Napoleon

98. “War is ninety percent information.”
— Napoleon

99. “If I had not been defeated in Acre against Jezzar Pasha of Turk. I would conquer all of the East.”
— Napoleon

100. “We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.”
— Napoleon

101. “The only way to lead people is to show them a future: a leader is a dealer in hope.”
— Napoleon

102. “I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle this matter by lunch time.”
— Napoleon

103. “The secret of war lies in the communications.”
— Napoleon

104. “Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”
— Napoleon

105. “My enemies make appointments at my tomb.”
— Napoleon

106. “There shall be no Alps.”
— Napoleon

107. “Of all the peoples of Europe, Spaniards disgust me the least.”
— Napoleon

108. “That man made me miss my destiny.”
— Napoleon

109. “It requires more courage to suffer than to die.”
— Napoleon

110. “A journalist is a grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations. Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”
— Napoleon

111. “From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.”
— Napoleon

112. “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.”
— Napoleon

113. “The stupid speak of the past, the wise of the present, and fools of the future.”
— Napoleon

114. “Cossacks are the best light troops among all that exist. If I had them in my army, I would go through all the world with them.”
— Napoleon

115. “Great ambition is the passion of a great character.”
— Napoleon

116. “The greatest danger occurs at the moment of victory.”
— Napoleon

117. “Nature intended women to be our slaves. They are our property.”
— Napoleon

118. “We walk faster when we walk alone.”
— Napoleon

119. “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.”
— Napoleon

120. “A true man hates no one.”
— Napoleon

121. “Give me enough ribbons to place on the tunics of my soldiers and I can conquer the world.”
— Napoleon

122. “Man will believe anything, as long as it’s not in the bible.”
— Napoleon

123. “Space we can recover; time never.”
— Napoleon

124. “I would rather have a general who was lucky than one who was good.”
— Napoleon

125. “The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.”
— Napoleon

126. “I have made all the calculations; fate will do the rest.”
— Napoleon

127. “You become strong by defying defeat and by turning loss into gain and failure to success.”
— Napoleon

128. “Circumstances-what are circumstances? I make circumstances.”
— Napoleon

129. “I base my calculation on the expectation that luck will be against me.”
— Napoleon

130. “A leader has the right to be beaten, but never the right to be surprised.”
— Napoleon

131. “The purely defensive is doomed to defeat.”
— Napoleon

132. “I have only one counsel for you – be master.”
— Napoleon

133. “There is no such thing as an accident, only a failure to recognise the hand of fate.”
— Napoleon

134. “Insubordination may only be the evidence of a strong mind.”
— Napoleon

135. “If you know a country’s geography, you can understand and predict its foreign policy.”
— Napoleon

136. “My downfall raises me to infinite heights.”
— Napoleon

137. “I feel myself driven towards an end that I do not know. As soon as I shall have reached it, as soon as I shall become unnecessary, an atom will suffice to shatter me. Till then, not all the forces of mankind can do anything against me.”
— Napoleon

138. “No one but myself can be blamed for my fall. I have been my own greatest enemy-the cause of my own disastrous fate.”
— Napoleon

139. “Nothing is lost as long as courage remains.”
— Napoleon

140. “Strategy is the art of making use of time and space. I am less concerned about the later than the former. Space we can recover, lost time never.”
— Napoleon

141. “Great battles are won with artillery.”
— Napoleon

142. “To live, is to suffer; and the honest man is always fighting to be master of his own mind.”
— Napoleon

143. “In war there is but one favorable moment; the great art is to seize it!”
— Napoleon

144. “Men are ruled by toys.”
— Napoleon

145. “An urgent missive sent to Josephine Home in three days. Don’t wash.”
— Napoleon

146. “In war it is not men, but the man who counts.”
— Napoleon

147. “A society without religion is like a vessel without compass.”
— Napoleon

148. “If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.”
— Napoleon

149. “An empty throne always tempts me.”
— Napoleon

150. “It is with artillery that war is made.”
— Napoleon

151. “You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.”
— Napoleon

152. “Good intelligence is nine-tenths of any battle.”
— Napoleon

153. “The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one’s self to destiny.”
— Napoleon

154. “My business is to succeed, and I’m good at it. I create my Iliad by my actions, create it day by day.”
— Napoleon

155. “Mankind’s worst enemy is fear of work.”
— Napoleon

156. “Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.”
— Napoleon

157. “Impatience is a great obstacle to success; he who treats everything with brusqueness gathers nothing, or only immature fruit which will never ripen.”
— Napoleon

158. “I made all my generals out of mud.”
— Napoleon

159. “God has given me the will and the force to overcome all obstacles.”
— Napoleon

160. “An army’s effectiveness depends on its size, training, experience, and morale, and morale is worth more than any of the other factors combined.”
— Napoleon

161. “Adversity is the midwife of genius.”
— Napoleon

162. “Who saves his country violates no law.”
— Napoleon

163. “Better to have a known enemy than a forced ally.”
— Napoleon

164. “True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life, in whatever shape they may challenge us to combat.”
— Napoleon

165. “The hand that gives is among the hand that takes. Money has no fatherland, financiers are without patriotism and without decency, their sole object is gain.”
— Napoleon

166. “The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.”
— Napoleon

167. “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

168. “Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age.”
— Napoleon

169. “He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.”
— Napoleon

170. “One might as well try to charge through a wall.”
— Napoleon

171. “A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.”
— Napoleon

172. “There are so many laws that no one is safe from hanging.”
— Napoleon

173. “To understand the man you have to know what was happening in the world when he was twenty.”
— Napoleon

174. “A man becomes the creature of his uniform.”
— Napoleon

175. “I have fought sixty battles, and I have learnt nothing which I did not know at the beginning.”
— Napoleon

176. “An order that can be misunderstood, will be misunderstood.”
— Napoleon

177. “The advance and perfecting of mathematics are closely joined to the prosperity of the nation.”
— Napoleon

178. “Oh well, no matter what happens, there’s always death.”
— Napoleon

179. “Do you know what amazes me more than anything else? The impotence of force to organize anything.”
— Napoleon

180. “A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.”
— Napoleon

181. “The purpose of religion is to keep the poor from killing the rich.”
— Napoleon

182. “In the eyes of empire builders men are not men but instruments.”
— Napoleon

183. “The sovereignty of the people is inalienable.”
— Napoleon

184. “Those who failed to oppose me, who readily agreed with me and accepted all my views, were those who did me the most injury.”
— Napoleon

185. “The World is not ruined by the wickedness of the wicked, but by the weakness of the good.”
— Napoleon

186. “Laws which are consistent in theory often prove chaotic in practice.”
— Napoleon

187. “In war, as in prostitution, amateurs are often better than professionals.”
— Napoleon

188. “The future destiny of a child is always the work of the mother.”
— Napoleon

189. “Destiny urges me to a goal of which I am ignorant. Until that goal is attained I am invulnerable, unassailable. When Destiny has accomplished her purpose in me, a fly may suffice to destroy me.”
— Napoleon

190. “My success and everything good that I have done, I owe to my mother.”
— Napoleon

191. “You write to me that it’s impossible. The word is not French.”
— Napoleon

192. “The fool has one great advantage over a man of sense; he is always satisfied with himself.”
— Napoleon

193. “Our hour is marked, and no one can claim a moment of life beyond what fate has predestined.”
— Napoleon

194. “The reason I beat the Austrians is, they did not known the value of five minutes.”
— Napoleon

195. “Conquest has made me what I am, only conquest can maintain me.”
— Napoleon

196. “The strong are good, only the weak are wicked.”
— Napoleon

197. “The bullet that will kill me is not yet cast.”
— Napoleon

198. “It is cowardly to commit suicide. The English often kill themselves. It is a malady caused by the humid climate.”
— Napoleon

199. “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

200. “In time of revolution, with perseverance and courage, a soldier should think nothing impossible.”
— Napoleon