Soldiers! Forty centuries behold
you!"
- Napoleon Bonaparte, July 1798.
To his army before the Battle of the Pyraminds.
"The moral is to the physical as
three to one"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"My business is to succeed, and I’m
good at it. I create my Iliad by my actions, create it day by day."
- Napoleon (1804), in a conversation with Pope Pius VII at Fontainebleau.
"the secret of war lies in the
communications"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"It is better to have a known enemy
than a forced ally"
- Napoleon Bonaparte, 1848
"A man does not have himself killed
for a half-pence a day or for a petty distinction. You must speak to the soul in
order to electrify him"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"Conscription is the vitality of a
nation, the purification of its morality, and the real foundations off all its
habits"
- Napoleon, "Political Aphorisms" 1848
"To have good soldiers, a nation
must always be at war."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"The bayonet has always been the
weapon of the brave and the chief tool of victory"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"Cavalry is usefull before, during,
and after the battle"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"Without cavalry, battles are
without result"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Victory belongs to the most
persevering.
-Napoleon Bonaparte
I love a brave soldier who has
undergone the baptism of fire.
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Two armies are two bodies which
meet and try to frighten each other.
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Soldiers usually win the battles
and generals get the credit for them.
-Napoleon Bonaparte
"Courage is like love: it must have
hope for nourishment."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
("Maxims")
"Human life is the only thing that
takes care of itself."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
(on why he left men exposed to the enemy in Russia)
"In war there is but one favorable
moment; the great art is to seize it!"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"The most important qualification
of a soldier is fortitude under fatigue and privation. Courage is only second;
hardship, poverty and want are the best school for a soldier."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"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 Bonaparte
"There are certain things in war of
which the commander alone comprehends the importance. Nothing but his superior
firmness and ability can subdue and surmount all difficulties."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"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 Boneparte
"He that makes war without many
mistakes has not made war very long."
-Napoleon Boneparte
"One bad general is worth two good
ones."
- Napoleon Boneparte,. Made a career of finding, and defeating, inept enemy
generals.
"How many things apparently
impossible have nevertheless been performed by resolute men who had no
alternative but death."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"Read over and over again the
campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Turenne, Eugene and
Frederic. ... This is the only way to become a great general and master the
secrets of the art of war. ..."
-Napoleon Bonaparte, "Military Maxims of Napoleon"