Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Napoleon I (Emperor of France)

Napoleon I (1769–1821,) also called Napoléon Bonaparte, was the Emperor of France 1804–14 and 1815. One of the greatest military conquerors in history, he remade the map of Europe through his conquests. His significant administrative and legal reforms promoted the growth of liberalism.

Of racially Italian background, Napoleon was born Napoleone Buonaparte in Ajaccio in Corsica. He was educated in the military schools at Brienne (1779) and Paris (1784.) After a meteoric rise through the French Revolutionary Army, Napoleon took power in 1799 as First Consul and assumed the hereditary title of Emperor in 1804.

Napoleon’s many reforms left a lasting mark on the institutions of France and of much of Western Europe. He revolutionized military organization and training, established a French empire that stretched from Spain to Poland, dissolved the Holy Roman Empire, and instituted the long-lived Concordat with the papacy. He also sponsored the Napoleonic Code, the modern French legal, administrative, and educational systems.

Napoleon’s driving passion was the military expansion of French dominion. After his disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812, he was forced into exile in 1814, and, returning to power a year later, was defeated at Waterloo (1815) by the Duke of Wellington’s Anglo-allied army. The British government banished Napoleon to the distant island of St. Helena in the mid-Atlantic, where he died of a stomach illness and was buried in the Valley of the Willows there.

Napoleon’s remains were brought to Paris in 1840 and given a magnificent funeral. Since 1861, his tomb is located in the crypt under the dome at Les Invalides.

Notable biographies of Napoleon include the British historian Andrew Roberts’s Napoleon the Great (2014; USA: Napoleon: A Life) and Frank Kafker and James Laux’s Napoleon and His Times (1989.)

The Foundation Napoléon archives the Emperor’s 33,000 surviving letters.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Napoleon I

The contagion of crime is like that of the plague.—Criminals collected together corrupt each other.—They are worse than ever when, at the termination of their punishment, they return to society.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Evil, Crime

It is not enough to give orders they must be obeyed.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Control

The great art of governing consists in not letting men grow old in their jobs.
—Napoleon I

America is a fortunate country; she grows by the follies of our European nations.
—Napoleon I
Topics: America

A people which is able to say everything becomes able to do everything.
—Napoleon I

The nature of Christ’s existence is mysterious, I admit; but this mystery meets the wants of man.—Reject it and the world is an inexplicable riddle; believe it, and the history of our race is satisfactorily explained.
—Napoleon I

Impossible! That is not good French.
—Napoleon I

Men are led by trifles.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Leadership, Leaders, Trifles

When the heart speaks, glory itself is an illusion.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Heart

One must change one’s tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one’s superiority.
—Napoleon I
Topics: War, Change

A man’s palate can, in time, become accustomed to anything.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Style, Taste

The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Greatness, Greatness & Great Things

Men, in general, are but great children.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Man

History is a myth that men agree to believe.
—Napoleon I
Topics: One liners, History

This man Wellington is so stupid he does not know when he is beaten and goes on fighting.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Perseverance, Endurance, Resolve

“Why” and “how” are words so important that they cannot be too often used.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Questions, Words

Chance is the providence of adventurers.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Chance

Music, of all the liberal arts, has the greatest influence over the passions, and is that to which the legislator ought to give the greatest encouragement.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Music

In politics, an absurdity is not a handicap.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Politicians, Politics

Revolutions are like the most noxious dung-heaps, which bring into life the noblest vegetables.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Revolution

In victory you deserve Champagne; in defeat you need it.
—Napoleon I

To become a good man, one must have faithful friends, or outright enemies.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Friendship, Goodness

You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy’s ranks.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Dying, Death

Un croquis vaut mieux qu
—Napoleon I
Topics: Art

A Constitution should be short and obscure.
—Napoleon I

In politics, an absurdity in public business is going into it.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Politicians, Politics

Ability has nothing to do with opportunity.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Ability

Character is victory organized.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Victory, Character

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 I
Topics: Fear, Conflict

Over-preparation is the foe of inspiration.
—Napoleon I
Topics: Preparation, Inspiration

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