Quotes About Napoleon

America remained a land of promise for lovers of freedom. Even Byron, at a moment when he was disgusted with Napoleon for not committing suicide, wrote an eloquent stanza in praise of Washington.

I will not become a Napoleon nor an Alexander, and labour for my own ambition; but I will labour for freedom and for the moral well-being of man.

An urgent missive sent to Josephine Home in three days. Don't wash.

I have the personality, the nature, of Napoleon, albeit a feminine translation.

The youngest son of an officer in Bonaparte's army, Hugo was born in 1802 near the Swiss border, in Besançon. Two years later, his mother, a confirmed royalist, gave up on her marriage, leaving Major Hugo to his mistress and his wars.

march toward Italian unification. The two stories were intertwined, for Napoleon III had for several years used French troops to defend the pope, who was determined to retain temporal power in Rome, the last remaining vestige of the once-mighty Papal States.

treaty of Campo Formio was signed in 1797, Napoleon had won fourteen battles, and had subjugated Italy.

Napoleon was probably the equal at least of Washington in intellect, his superior in education. Both of them were successful in serving the state.

I count upon taking [the French people] by surprise. A bold deed upsets people's equanimity, and they are dumbfounded by a great novelty.

Ma vraie gloire n'est pas d'avoir gagné quarante batailles. Waterloo effacera le souvenir de tant de victoires. Ce que rien n'effacera, ce qui vivra éternellement, c'est mon Code civil.

Is mayonnaise an instrument?

Damn sugar, damn coffee, damn colonies!

I saw myself founding a religion, marching into Asia riding an elephant, a turban on my head and in my hand the new Koran that I would have composed to suit my needs.

Every French soldier carries a marshal's baton in his knapsack.

France is invaded; I am leaving to take command of my troops, and, with God's help and their valor, I hope soon to drive the enemy beyond the frontier.

Medicine is a collection of uncertain prescriptions the results of which, taken collectively, are more fatal than useful to mankind.

Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.

Of all the peoples of Europe, Spaniards disgust me the least.

In war, theory is all right so far as general principles are concerned; but in reducing general principles to practice there will always be danger. Theory and practice are the axis about which the sphere of accomplishment revolves.

Able was I ere I saw Elba

I often asked Laplace what he thought of God. He owned that he was an atheist.

What a beautiful fix we are in now; peace has been declared.

Was there something distinctive about American civil society that gave democracy a better chance than in France, as Tocqueville argued? Was the already centralized French state more likely to produce a Napoleon than the decentralized United States? We cannot be sure. But it is not unreasonable to ask how long the US constitution would have lasted if the United States had suffered the same military and economic strains that swept away the French constitution of 1791

Napoleon marched up the aisle with the Iron Crown under his arm and put it on his own head