"The hand that gives is above the hand that takes.

Money has no motherland; fina nciers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain." What I have read about "Able was I ere I saw Elba" is -- When Napolean was impri soned in Elba, one newspaper reporter went and interviewed Napolean and during i nterview it seems he asked As a nobleman, what and how does he feel about being imprisoned in Elba? to which Napolean replied "Able was I ere I saw Elba" that m eans before coming to Elba, I was not as able as I am today...... "It is easier to rule a country by writing its songs than it's laws." "God fights on the side with the best artillery." "You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war." is a quote from Plutarch. He is talking about the Spartans. It goes so mething like 'the Spartans knew they should not make war often, or too long, with the same enemy, lest they should train and instruct them in war ' When God with these forbid'n made choice to rear [ 555 ] His mighty Champion, strong above compare, Whose drink was only from the liquid brook. Sam. But what avail'd this temperance, not compleat Against another object more enticing? What boots it at one gate to make defence, [ 560 ] And at another to let in the foe Effeminatly vanquish't? by which means, Now blind, dishearten'd, sham'd, dishonour'd, quell'd, To what can I be useful, wherein serve My Nation, and the work from Heav'n impos'd, [ 565 ] But to sit idle on the houshold hearth, A burdenous drone; to visitants a gaze, Or pitied object, these redundant locks Robustious to no purpose clustring down, "I might be defeated, but I wil never be taken by surprise" "There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long r un the sword will always be conquered by the spirit." "What then, generally speaking, is history? A fable agreed upon." the hand that gives is above the hand that takes Money has no motherland A celebrated people lose dignity upon a closer view. A man does not have himself killed for a half-pence a day or for a petty dis tinction; you must speak to the soul in order to electrify him. A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights. A man like me troubles himself little about the lives of a million men A picture is worth a thousand words. A portion of the multitude must ever be coerced. A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.

A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of coloured ribbon. A true man hates no one. Ah, tenez, vous tes de la merde dans un bas de soie. Look, you're shit in a silk stocking. Referring to Talleyrand (28 January 1809) All men are equal before God: wisdom, talents, and virtue are the only diffe rence between them. Ambition never is in a greater hurry than I; it merely keeps pace with circu mstances and with my general way of thinking. America is a fortunate country. She grows by the follies of our European nat ions. An army marches on its stomach. An emperor confides his trust in National Soldiers, not in mercenaries. Authoritarian government required to speak, is silent... Representative gove rnment required to speak, lies with impunity. Better not to have been born than to live without glory. Better to have a known enemy than a forced ally. Variant: Better to have an open enemy, than hidden friends. Calumny, envy, and all revengeful passions appear almost exclusively to dire ct the actions of men. Ces terribles chevaux gris! Comme ils travaillent! Those terrible grey horses, how they strive! Chartres is no place for an atheist. Upon visiting the Cathedral of Chartres. Civil liberty depends upon the security of property. Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment. Cruelty can only be justified by necessity. Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily. Death may expiate faults, but cannot repair them. Different subjects and different affairs are arranged in my head as in a cup board. When I wish to interrupt one train of thought, I shut that drawer and ope n another. Do I wish to sleep, I simply close all the drawers and then I am aslee p. Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we ge nerals. Every soldier carries a marshal's baton in his pack. Everything has a limit, even human emotions.

Everything in religion should be gratuitous, and for the people; care must b e taken not to deprive the poor... of the only thing which consoles them for the ir poverty. Experience proves that armies are not always sufficient to save a nation; wh ile a nation defended by its people is ever invincible. Fanaticism must first be lulled, in order that it may be eradicated. Female virtue has been held in suspicion from the beginning of the world, an d ever will be. "For my Poles there is no such thing as impossible." Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets. France, the army, Josephine... Reportedly his last words. In French: 'France, arme, Josphine...' Free trade favors all classes, excites all imaginations, and rouses the whol e population; it is identical with equality, and tends naturally to independence . Frenchmen know not how to conspire. Friendship is but a name. Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever. Great ambition is the passion of a great character. He who is endowed with i t may perform either very great actions or very bad ones; all depends upon the p rinciples which direct him. He who fights against his country, is a child who would kill his own mother. He who is unmoved by tears has no heart. He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander. How can you have order in a state without religion? For, when one man is dyi ng of hunger near another who is ill of surfeit, he cannot resign himself to thi s difference unless there is an authority which declares, 'God wills it thus.' R eligion is excellent stuff for keeping people quiet. I accept I might be defeated, but caught in surprise, never. I am never angry when contradicted, I seek to be enlightened. I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government li es in knowing when to be the one or the other. (Idea originally conceptualized b y Machiavelli in The Prince) I believe love to be hurtful to society, and to the individual happiness of men. I believe, in short, that love does more harm than good. I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up. I feel as if I am being driven towards an unknown goal. As soon as it is att ained and there will no longer be any use for me, an atom will be sufficient to

annihilate me; but until then, all human efforts whether in Paris or in the army will be powerless to prevail against me. If you start to take Vienna take Vienna.

I have been called upon to change the face of the world. I have not come to you except for the purpose of restoring your rights from the hands of the oppressors... (motivation for invading Egypt in 1798) I have recognized the limits of my eyesight and of my legs, but never the li mits of my working power. I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexand er, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him. I made all my generals out of mud. In the world there are but two powers the sword and the mind, in the long ru n the latter always beats the former. I was born and made for work. If I always appear prepared, it is because before entering an undertaking, I have meditated long and have foreseen what might occur. It is not genius where reveals to me suddenly and secretly what I should do in circumstances unexpected by others; it is thought and preparation. If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god. If the whole world was a state, Istanbul would be the capital of it. If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots. If you want a thing done well, do it yourself. If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothin g. Imagination rules the world. In a great nation, the majority are incapable of judging wisely of things. In choosing a wife, a man does not renounce his mother, and still less is he justified in breaking her heart. In great crisis, it is the lot of women to soften our misfortunes. In politics stupidity is not a handicap. Variant: In politics an absurdity is not a handicap. In victory, you deserve Champagne; in defeat, you need it. In warfare, the mental to the physical is as three is to one.

It is an approved maxim in war, never to do what the enemy wishes you to do, for this reason alone, that he desires it. It is in the workshops of the country that the most successful war is waged against an enemy, at least it does not cost a drop of its people's blood. It is not enough that I succeed bal. everyone else must fail.- Adapted from Hanni

It is the cause, and not the death, that makes the martyr. It is the province of honest men to enlighten the government. It requires more courage to suffer than to die. It would have been better for the peace of France if this man had never exis ted. Said of Jean-Jacques Rousseau Let China sleep. For when China wakes, it will shake the world. Variant translation: When China awakes, the world will tremble. Variant: Let China slumber, for when she wakes, she will conquer the world Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues. Men are moved by two levers only fear and self interest. Variant: There are only two forces that unite men fear and interest. Men take only their needs into consideration never their abilities. My motto has always been: A career open to all talents, without distinctions of birth. Quoted in Mmorial de Ste Hlne by Las Cases Never attack in front of a position that can be taken by turning. Never awake me when you have good news to announce, because with good news n othing presses; but when you have bad news, arouse me immediately, for then ther e is not an instant to be lost. Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to d ecide. Now we are in a fix. Peace has been declared. After the treaty of Amien One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one' s superiority. One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent. Passionate people invariably deny their anger, and cowards often boast their ignorance of fear. People accustomed to great victories, know not how to support a day of rever se.

Popes have committed too many absurdities to create a belief in their infall ibility. Power is founded on opinion. Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me. Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich. Respect the burden. Riches do not consist in the possession of treasures, but in the use made of them. Six hours sleep for a man, seven for a woman and eight for a fool. Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy. So you think the police foresees and knows everything. The police invents mo re than it discovers. Some men have sufficient strength of mind to change their disposition, or at least to yield to imperative circumstances. Speeches pass away, but acts remain. Strategy is the art of making use of time and space. I am less concerned abo ut the latter than the former. Space we can recover, lost time never. Stupidity is not a handicap in politics. Such work as mine is not done twice in a century. I saved the Revolution as it lay dying, I have cleansed it of its crimes and have held it up to the people shining with fame. I inspired France and Europe with new ideas which will never be forgotten. Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent. The act of policing is, in order to punish less often, to punish more severe ly. The allies we gain by victory, will turn against us upon the bare whisper of our defeat. The aristocracy has the advantage of concentrating the power of Government i nto less dangerous hands than those of the ignorant multitude. The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies. The best cure for the body is a quiet mind. The best way to keep one's word is not to give it. The English... are a nation of shopkeepers Quoted in B. B. B. O'Meara's Napoleon at St. Helena Quoting the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith [1]

The Bible is no mere book, but a Living Creature, with a power that conquers all that oppose it. The favorable opportunity must be seized; for fortune is female, and if you balk her today you must not expect to meet her again tomorrow. The guilt of many men may be traced to over-affection for their wives. The heart of a minister should be nowhere but in his head. The infectiousness of crime is like that of the plague. The most important qualification of a soldier is fortitude under fatigue and privation. Courage is only second; hardship, poverty and want are the best scho ol for a soldier. The nature of Christ's existence is mysterious, I admit; but this mystery me ets the wants of man. Reject it and the world is an inexplicable riddle; believe it, and the history of our race is satisfactorily explained. The only victories which leave no regret are those which are gained over ign orance. The only victory over love is flight. The people never rub themselves against naked bayonets. The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagr ee with you and are too cowardly to let you know. The revolution is over. I am the Revolution The spectacle of a field of battle after the combat is sufficient to inspire princes with the love of peace and the horror of war. The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind. The stupid speak of the past, the wise of the present, and fools of the futu re. The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man. The true character of man ever displays itself in great events. The woman we love is ever the prettiest of her sex. There are calumnies against which even innocence loses courage. There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the lon g run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit. There is neither subordination, nor fear in empty bellies. There is no greater misfortune for a man than to be governed by his wife: in such case he is neither himself nor his wife, he is a perfect nonentity. There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time.

There is one thing that's not French: for a woman to be able to do what she likes. They think I am stern, even hardhearted. So much the better this makes it unn ecessary for me to justify my reputation. My firmness is taken for callousness. I shall not complain, since this notion is responsible for the good order that i s prevailing, so that there is nothing that needs to be repressed. To abandon oneself to despair without a struggle, to commit suicide as a rel ief, is like leaving the field of battle before we have vanquished the enemy. To extraordinary circumstances we must apply extraordinary remedies. To have a right estimate of a man's character, we must see him in misfortune . To have good soldiers, a nation must always be at war. To seduce a wife from her husband, or a son from his father, are odious acts , unworthy of civilised nations. To write history, one must be more than a man, since the author who holds th e pen of this great justiciary should be free from all pre-occupation of interes t or of vanity. Un bon croquis vaut mieux qu'un long discours. Translation: A good sketch is better than a long speech. Alternate translation: A picture is worth a thousand words. Victory belongs to the most persevering. War is the business of barbarians. Water, air, and cleanness are the chief articles in my pharmacy. We cannot escape from the arbitrariness of the judge, unless we place oursel ves under the despotism of the law. We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him. We must not obstinately contend against circumstances, but rather let us obe y them. We have many projects in life but little determination. We must not take up arms for vain prospects of grandeur, nor the allurements of conquest. We must take things as we find them, and not as we wish them to be. We walk faster when we walk alone. When he who measures the duration of life has pronounced his secret, all the sciences of humanity are but useless essays. You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy 's ranks. You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.

Quoted in Representative Men: Uses of Great Men by Ralph Waldo Emerson You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonf ire under her deck? Excuse me, I have no time to listen to such nonsense. To Robert Fulton about his steam ship. "Fashion condemns us to many follies; the greatest is to make oneself its slave. " "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." "The world suffers a lot, not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people".