Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was one of the most important military leaders of all time and the first Emperor of France.
He was the architect of the coup d’état of 18 Brumaire which made him First Consul of the French Republic on 11 November 1799 and Consul for life on August 2, 1802. On 18 May 1804, he was proclaimed emperor of France and crowned on December 2, the same year. Proclaimed King of Italy on March 17, 1805, and crowned on May 26, he held both titles until April 11, 1814, and again from March 20 to June 22, 1815.
Napoleon dominated the European politics and World Affairs of his time for almost 15 years while leading the French armies against a series of military coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. Its aggressive wars of conquest became the largest military operations ever known in Europe, involving a number of soldiers never seen in history before that time.
He won most of these wars and battles, building a great empire that dominated continental Europe before its final collapse in 1815.
Napoleon revolutionized military organization and training, sponsored the Napoleonic Code, reorganized the educational system, and established a lasting Concordat with the Papacy.
Napoleon is considered by many scholars to be an “enlightened monarch” because of his reforms, his capacity to work, and incredible talents. Others, however, consider him a dictator whose wars have killed millions of people, as well as one of the most megalomaniacal and diabolical characters of all time.
Napoleon’s political and cultural legacy as one of the most famous and controversial leaders in human history had succesfully passed the test of time.
Although you have certainly read a lot about him in the history books, below you can find a short selection of the best Napoleon Bonaparte quotes about success, revolution, wars, and many other topics that will help you to better understand his complex personality.
100 Napoleon Bonaparte quotes you need to know:
- “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
2. “A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
3. “History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
4. “If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
5. “Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
6. “Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
7. “Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
8. “Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
9. “If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
10. “Victory belongs to the most persevering.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
11. “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.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
12. “A leader is a dealer in hope.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
13. “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
14. “You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
15. “Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
16. “There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
17. “Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
18. “Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
19. “An army marches on its stomach.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
20. “I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.” – Napoleon Bonaparte 
21. “There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
22. “The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
23. “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 Bonaparte
24. “Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
25. “He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
26. “Imagination rules the world.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
27. “Ability is nothing without opportunity.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
28. “Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
29. “Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
30. “Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
31. “The best cure for the body is a quiet mind.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
32. “From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
33. “Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
34. “A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
35. “The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
36. “It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
37. “I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
38. “Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
39. “If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
40. “The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
41. “Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious than to be able to decide.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
42. “It requires more courage to suffer than to die.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
43. “One must change one’s tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one’s superiority.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
44. “He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
45. “The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
46. “In politics… never retreat, never retract… never admit a mistake.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
47. “Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
48. “The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
49. “Water, air, and cleanness are the chief articles in my pharmacy.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
50. “A Constitution should be short and obscure.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
51. “One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
52. “France has more need of me than I have need of France.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
53. “A revolution can be neither made nor stopped. The only thing that can be done is for one of several of its children to give it a direction by dint of victories.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
54. “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
55. “Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
56. “I have only one counsel for you – be master.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
57. “Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
58. “Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
59. “A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
60. “If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
61. “With audacity, one can undertake anything, but not do everything”. – Napoleon Bonaparte
62. “Throw off your worries when you throw off your clothes at night.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
63. “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
64. “The battle of Austerlitz is the grandest of all I have fought.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
65. “When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
66. “Riches do not consist in the possession of treasures, but in the use made of them.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
67. “You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy’s ranks.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
68. “The army is the true nobility of our country.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
69. “Men take only their needs into consideration – never their abilities.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
70. “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
71. “Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
72. “A man cannot become an atheist merely by wishing it.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
73. “I am the successor, not of Louis XVI, but of Charlemagne.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
74. “Ambition never is in a greater hurry than I; it merely keeps pace with circumstances and with my general way of thinking.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
75. “When soldiers have been baptized in the fire of a battle-field, they have all one rank in my eyes.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
76. “We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
77. “I made all my generals out of mud.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
78. “England is a nation of shopkeepers.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
79. “All religions have been made by men.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
80. “Medicines are only fit for old people.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
81. “The great proof of madness is the disproportion of one’s designs to one’s means.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
82. “Let the path be open to talent.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
83. “The fool has one great advantage over a man of sense; he is always satisfied with himself.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
84. “Friends must always be treated as if one day they might be enemies.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
85. “The stupid speak of the past, the wise of the present, and fools of the future.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
86. “We walk faster when we walk alone.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
87. “A true man hates no one.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
88. “A woman laughing is a woman conquered.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
89. “Six hours sleep for a man, seven for a woman and eight for a fool.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
90. “In our time none has the conception of what is great. It is up to me to show them.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
91. “God is on the side with the best artillery.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
92. “Better to have an open enemy, than hidden friends.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
93. “Great men are meteors designed to burn so that earth may be lighted.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
94. “Prussia was hatched from a cannon-ball.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
95. “Nothing is more destructive than the charge of artillery on a crowd.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
96. “Those who have changed the universe have never done it by changing officials, but always by inspiring the people.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
97. “Great men are never cruel without necessity.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
98. “You don’t reason with intellectuals. You shoot them.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
99. “I base my calculation on the expectation that luck will be against me.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
100. “The greatest general is he who makes the fewest mistakes.” – Napoleon Bonaparte