Quotes By Napoleon Bonaparte

One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent.

The great proof of madness is the disproportion of one's designs to one's means.

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

Greatness is nothing unless it be lasting.

Let the path be open to talent.

There is no place in a fanatic's head where reason can enter.

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

The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.

It is my wish that my ashes may repose on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people, whom I have loved so well.

At twenty-two many things are allowed which are no longer permitted past thirty.

Send me 300 francs; that sum will enable me to go to Paris. There, at least, one can cut a figure and surmount obstacles. Everything tells me I shall succeed. Will you prevent me from doing so for the want of 100 crowns?

My waking thoughts are all of thee. Your portrait and the remembrance of last night's delirium have robbed my senses of repose. Sweet and incomparable Josephine, what an extraordinary influence you have over my heart. Are you vexed? Do I see you sad? Are you ill at ease? My soul is broken with grief, and there is no rest for your lover.

From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.

What I have done up to this is nothing. I am only at the beginning of the course I must run. Do you imagine that I triumph in Italy in order to aggrandise the pack of lawyers who form the Directory, and men like Carnot and Barras? What an idea!

I hope the time is not far off when I shall be able to unite all the wise and educated men of all the countries and establish a uniform regime based on the principles of the Quran which alone are true and which alone can lead men to happiness.

The barbarous custom of having men beaten who are suspected of having important secrets to reveal must be abolished. It has always been recognized that this way of interrogating men, by putting them to torture, produces nothing worthwhile. The poor wretches say anything that comes into their mind and what they think the interrogator wishes to know.

Anarchy is the stepping stone to absolute power.

Religion is indeed a kind of vaccine innoculation, which, by satisfying our natural love for the marvellous, keeps us out of the hands of charlatans and conjurors. The priests are better than the Cagliostros, the Kants, and all the visionaries of Germany.

There is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.

The word impossible is not French.