Napoleon Bonaparte

"Woe to the leader whose troops lose faith in him."

"One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to prevent oneself from being cast into prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny."

"There is nothing in the world that does not have a decisive moment."

"My greatest general is April."

"The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be averted."

"The only conquests which are bloodless and that bring no regrets are those gained over ignorance."

"The presence of the general is indispensable."

"A leader has the right and responsibility to break the morale of his enemies."

"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."

"Accidents will happen in the best-regulated families."

"The human heart has hidden treasures, in secret kept, in silence sealed."

"I have always maintained that if you are going to believe in Christ at all you must believe in Him as Almighty God, take all or nothing."

"What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything? It is the balance of power."

"I love France more than I love my own family."

"In war, the moral is half the battle."

"If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country."

"Authority proceeds from the peoples themselves, and must be exercised for the good of the peoples."

"The greatest monarch on the grandest throne is still the servant of the time in which he lives."

"A man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and thinking must precede and accompany every act."

"The true measure of success is how many times you can bounce back from failure."

"Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and Napoleon shakes everything else."

"Nature and truth are one. You cannot contradict nature and be truthful."

"I have inspected the Egyptian Pyramids and walked in the gardens of Babylon. I have seen the fall of Rome and the rise of Christianity. I have shared bread with Cæsar himself. Yet none of this compares to the beauty of a single act of kindness."

"The art of being sometimes very ignorant and very simple."

"Sometimes we must allow defeat to become victory."

"Soldiers generally make good citizens after the war is over."

"A learned man is an accumulation of facts; a wise man is the product of experience."

"Providence is always on the side of the big battalions."

"To say one admires parliament is not to say much for one's admiration."

"My feeling is that the time is not far off when it will be fashionable to be insane."