Napoleon Bonaparte Power Quotations

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.

If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.

History is a set of lies agreed upon.

In politics... never retreat, never retract... never admit a mistake.

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

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.

A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.

Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.

He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.

Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.

Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.

To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.

Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.

A true master of politics is able to calculate, down to the smallest fraction, the advantages to which he may put his very faults.

Governments keep their promises only when they are forced, or when it is to their advantage to do so.

Passions change, politics are immutable.

Bloodletting is among the ingredients of political medicine.

Democracy, if it is reasonable, limits itself to giving everyone an equal opportunity to compete and to obtain.

In political administration, no problem is ever simple. It can never be reduced to the question whether a certain measure is good or not.

It is an ambassador's duty to stand up for his nation's foreign policy in any era and under any government whatsoever. Ambassadors are, in the full meaning of the term, titled spies.

Do not talk to me of goodness, of abstract justice, of nature law. Necessity is the highest law, public welfare is the highest justice.

A Constitution should be short and obscure.

A great Nation should have a fixed Government, so that the death of one man should not overturn it.

Where the Government is weak, military sway prevails.

For the stability of the Government, the people should have a considerable voice in the elections.

In a great nation, the majority are incapable of judging wisely of things.

The sovereignty of the people is inalienable.

There is no power without justice.

A new-born Government must shine and astonish - the moment it loses its éclat it falls.

A great European federative system alone can be favourable to the development of civilisation.

Speeches pass away, but acts remain.

Men who have changed the world never achieved their success by winning the chief citizens to their side, but always by stirring the masses.

A legislator must know how to take advantage of even the defects of those he wants to govern. The art consists in making others work rather than in wearing oneself out.

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

Nothing is more arrogant than the weakness which feels itself supported by power.

Lack is more in means, than in principles.

To negotiate is not to do as one likes.

A magistrate is not a father; he must be just and severe. Only tyrants are fathers.

The policies of all powers are inherent in their geography.

Pure politics is merely the calculus of combinations and of chances.

Public morals are natural complement of all laws they are by themselves an entire code.

The first method is that of a schemer and leads only to mediocre results; the other method is the path of genius and changes the face of the world.

An order that can be misunderstood, will be misunderstood.

There is no strength without justice.

God has given me the will and the force to overcome all obstacles.

If fifty thousand men were to die for the good of the State, I certainly would weep for them, but political necessity comes before everything else.

A man made for public life and authority never takes account of personalities; he only takes account of things, of their weight and their conseqences.

The heart of a statesman should be in his head.

Good and decent people must be protected and persuaded by gentle means, but the rabble must be led by terror.

International incidents must not be allowed to shape foreign policy, foreign policy must shape the incidents.

Europe is a molehill. All great empires and revolutions have been on the Orient; six hundred millions live there.

High politic is only common sense applied to great things.

Great events ever depend but upon a single hair. The adroit man profits by everything, neglects nothing which can increase his chances; the less adroit, by sometimes disregarding a single chance, fails in everything.

When you set out to take Vienna, take Vienna.

Great men are never cruel without necessity.

In politics stupidity is not a handicap.

Force is the law of animals, men are ruled by conviction.

Anarchy is the stepping stone to absolute power.