NAPOLEON IN HIS OWN WORDS 
 
pllUlliniHlll/llTIiniDIJiTITI 
 
NAPOLEON 
 
 In His Own Words 
 
 FROM THE FRENCH OF 
 
 JULES BERTAUT 
 
 Translated by Herbert Edward Law 
 and Charles Lincoln Rhodes 
 
 Authorized Edition 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 A. C. McCLURG & CO. 
 
 1916 
 
REPLACFNG 
 
 Copyright 
 
 A. C. McClurg & Co. 
 1916 
 
 Published June, 1916 
 
 Copyrighted in Great Britain 
 
 W. F. HALL PRINTING COMPANY, CHICAGO 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Author's Preface ix 
 
 Translators' Preface xxi 
 
 The Character of Napoleon . . . . . xxv 
 
 - ' " ' ' r' ' 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I On Success I 
 
 II Psychology and Morals . II 
 
 III Love and Marriage 28 
 
 IV Things Political 35 
 
 V Concerning the Fine Arts .... 66 
 
 VI Administration 81 
 
 VII Concerning Religion 107 
 
 VIII War 116 
 
 IX Sociology 140 
 
 Notes 149 
 
 [vii] 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 THIS collection of Napoleonic aphor- 
 isms is not the first attempt of the 
 kind that has been made. The genius of 
 Napoleon has always challenged the atten- 
 tion of historians, as it has that of the 
 unpretending curious and lovers of strong 
 and beautiful maxims; and following the 
 Restoration, as after the rebirth of Imperi- 
 alism under Napoleon in, there were those 
 who diligently collected these odds and ends 
 of the Emperor's thoughts. However, if 
 this attempt to popularize these reflections 
 of genius is not entirely new, I do not think 
 any other has been undertaken with the 
 same care and candor. 
 
 We are now sufficiently distant from Na- 
 poleon to judge him with the dispassionate- 
 ness of an age appreciative, but careful to 
 do justice. And just because there is little 
 concerning this great man which is not now 
 known, we are able to classify in a system- 
 [ix] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 atic way the products of his mind. With- 
 out attempting a too rigid classification, 
 therefore, I have attempted to present the 
 diverse aspects of the Napoleonic mentality, 
 and to view him successively in his charac- 
 ter of professor of psychology and morals, 
 of politics and administration; as an au- 
 thority on love and marriage; as a patron of 
 the arts ; as a soldier and as a sociologist. 
 
 The first thing that strikes one in reading 
 these thoughts, these sentiments, these max- 
 ims, is the constant concern for sovereign 
 authority which they reveal. 
 
 Napoleon, in imagination, was constantly 
 concerned with the good of his subjects. 
 Whether in his literary works, properly so 
 called, or in his immense correspondence or 
 in his conversation or in his public speeches 
 or in his St. Helena confidences, he has taken 
 occasion to express himself on a multitude 
 of problems touching religion, science, 
 morals, art, politics and sociology. And 
 always he does it as a sovereign, as a master 
 conscious of his authority, obsessed with 
 the weight of his extraordinary responsibil- 
 ity and of the duty that devolved upon him. 
 
 Only rarely is his attention swerved from 
 [x] 
 
Author's Preface 
 
 the attainment of the final solution of a 
 social or moral problem. Almost always a 
 sure instinct brings him back to the stead- 
 fast aim of his efforts, and these efforts, 
 when they are analyzed, have no other aim 
 than a transcendental utilitarianism. To 
 bring to bear constantly throughout every 
 foot of the Empire, in every soul under his 
 authority, the powers of all for the aggran- 
 dizement and prosperity of the nation, that 
 was his unheralded but real anxiety and 
 purpose. To compel every citizen to render 
 all that he is capable of rendering of social 
 usefulness, to drag from men, in spite of 
 themselves and by an iron compulsion, all 
 that they possess of moral wealth and in- 
 fluence, to watch unceasingly the play of 
 institutions and their machinery, from their 
 simplest to their most intricate mechanism, 
 that nothing fail of the particular work as- 
 signed to it that was his constant pur- 
 pose. 
 
 We need not be astonished therefore if 
 this obsession constantly betrays itself in the 
 seemingly unrelated subjects of psychology 
 and morals. Nor ought we to be surprised 
 to find among aphorisms relating to love, 
 [xi] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 this opinion of Napoleon concerning wom- 
 en : " The most important woman in the 
 world, living or dead, is the one who has 
 borne the most children ; " or among those 
 concerning Christianity, " The Christian 
 religion will always be the firmest support 
 of every government clever enough to make 
 it serve it; " or among those concerning art, 
 " Tragedy is the school of genius; it is the 
 duty of sovereigns to encourage and support 
 it;" or again, "Books are too argumen- 
 tative not to corrupt a people by dishabitu- 
 ating it from fact." 
 
 These are the beliefs of a sovereign who 
 gives his thought chiefly to the play and 
 interplay of men and things on the stability 
 and power of the state. Truth never ap- 
 pears naked to such a mind; she is always 
 more or less draped. He never sees truth 
 objectively, but always in relation to some 
 one or some thing. 
 
 But what, in the last analysis, is this util- 
 itarianism which is the essence of Napo- 
 leon's genius? It is, in a word, the art of 
 adaptation carried to its highest expression. 
 To know how to create " the man for the 
 place/' as the trenchant English saying has 
 [xii] 
 
Author's Preface 
 
 it, and to get the supremest possible out 
 of him such is the whole secret of the 
 Napoleonic necromancy. This genius re- 
 quires for its highest exercise certain quali- 
 ties which the Emperor possessed in the 
 maximum of intensity. 
 
 In the first place he had an extraordinary 
 gift of insight. Napoleon was first of all a 
 dissector of souls that is easily seen in run- 
 ning through the chapter on psychology and 
 that on politics. It is evident also in the 
 maxims collected under the title " Adminis- 
 tration." 
 
 Let us reflect that he had lived through 
 the most astounding years of history, those 
 during which the human heart revealed it- 
 self in all its nakedness; that he had known 
 things at their worst, and seen at close range 
 the most sinister souls. But his knowledge 
 of the human being was not only of a 
 rigorous exactitude, he also knew the deep 
 furrows which nationality plows in tem- 
 perament; and, in particular, some of the 
 judgments of the French character he has 
 expressed have the quality of finality. 
 
 Moreover his insight has no tinge of 
 cruelty. He was himself too quivering with 
 [xiii] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 life to linger a pessimist at the spectacle of 
 humanity. On the other hand he visions too 
 clearly not to take advantage at once of 
 what he sees or to profit by his experience. 
 For example, he observes that, " Men are 
 greedy for emotion," and he adds at once, 
 " their enthusiasm is his who can cleverly 
 arouse it." He says, " It is important to 
 recognize human weakness," but he ex- 
 claims as a conclusion, " and turn it to your 
 advantage rather than to oppose it." Thus 
 always, in him, policy followed close on 
 psychology. 
 
 But keen insight alone is not sufficient to 
 continually fit men for the places to be 
 filled. It does not suffice to recognize ability 
 in men ; it is necessary to inspire them. Fol- 
 lowing insight, comes guidance. That is the 
 difficult thing. No mind was more single 
 in its will, no energy more irresistible than 
 his. With him, to form a purpose was to 
 execute it. His mind could conceive of 
 neither obstacles from within nor from 
 without which could swerve it. While his 
 prudence might suggest temporary yielding 
 to circumstances, he avowed it with a sort 
 of superior artlessness : " Pretexts never 
 [xiv] 
 
Author's Preface 
 
 fail the man who has the power to do what 
 he pleases." However, read and re-read 
 these aphorisms those which are the fruit 
 of long experience, as his maxims of war, 
 those which were the spontaneous outburst 
 of the moment, or those which were the 
 result of ripened thought the positive way 
 he says them gives them the seal of au- 
 thenticity. 
 
 But in addition to the power of insight, 
 and the gift of authority, a certain recog- 
 nition of the supremacy of moral ideas was 
 necessary thoroughly to understand the 
 citizen-subjects of the Empire, and to fore- 
 see how they would adjust themselves to 
 any given set of conditions. The Emperor 
 recognized this supremacy of moral ideas; 
 not as a deep and abiding conviction, nor as 
 a superstitious belief. The man who said 
 that a monarch ought to be acquainted with 
 all religions in order to be ready, on occa- 
 sion, to embrace them all, had but a modi- 
 cum of superstition, moral or religious. But 
 here, again, Napoleon's instinct for policy 
 came into play, and he realized that any 
 empire in which sound moral principles, 
 were not given free scope, was bound to fall, 
 [xv] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 For him, therefore, outwardly to conform 
 to morality, to preach morality, to defend 
 it, and to impose it on men and to require 
 it of them by all possible means, was merely 
 calculation. The result of it he intended 
 should be, everywhere and always, a realiza- 
 tion of the thought expressed by that char- 
 acter in Italian comedy who is made to say, 
 " I will make you happy in spite of your- 
 selves." Similarly, Napoleon might have 
 said to his subjects, " I will make you 
 moral, religious, and honest in spite of your- 
 selves," adding to himself, " because such is 
 to the supreme interest of the Empire." 
 
 Every means is good to him which will 
 firmly fix these truths in the French mind; 
 and he uses all means with consummate 
 adroitness. When the Grenadier Gobin 
 committed suicide for love, Napoleon at 
 once addressed his troops thus : " A soldier 
 ought to overcome the melancholy and bit- 
 terness of hopeless passion; to abandon 
 himself to disappointment without resis- 
 tance, to kill himself in order to escape from 
 himself, is to abandon the field of battle 
 without gaining the victory." Thus he 
 shows by example to those willing to see it, 
 [xvi] 
 
Authors Preface 
 
 that moral qualities are indispensable; and 
 Napoleon knew how to utilize all means to 
 arouse them. Thus was strengthened in 
 each soul the conviction that, in proportion 
 to his ability, it was the duty of each citizen 
 to cooperate for the grandeur and prosperity 
 of the country represented in the person of 
 the Emperor. 
 
 Such are the qualities indispensable to 
 one, who, through a supreme utilitarianism 
 would fashion men in his own image and 
 make of them the instruments of his dom- 
 ination. But important as these qualities 
 are, obvious as it is that they should be 
 found in a sovereign, they are still insuffi- 
 cient to accomplish supreme results. There 
 must be added to them a sense of harmony, 
 an artistic instinct for the sculpture and 
 design of the monument to be raised, a 
 searching vigilance careful of the smallest 
 details, leaving nothing to chance ; in a word, 
 that sense of form which Napoleon pos- 
 sessed in the highest degree, and which 
 makes him kin to the world's great artists. 
 
 I recall M. Paul Bourget, one day, in one 
 of those satisfying conversations in which 
 he excelled, developing the theory, that, as 
 [ xvii ] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 the Emperor's family was of Tuscan origin 
 one would expect to find in him an artistic 
 sense, an appreciation of form, an inherited 
 sense of balance and harmony. And this 
 indeed it is easy to recognize in his work, 
 which though a little massive, perhaps, is 
 admirably proportioned. 
 
 This impression is never so vividly pre- 
 sented to my mind as in considering the 
 minute care for the smallest details, with 
 which Napoleon occupied himself with an 
 untiring passion. In his maxims regarding 
 war there will be found one which is ex- 
 tremely characteristic in this respect. It is 
 where he is speaking of a commanding gen- 
 eral's addresses to his troops, and of the 
 necessity of issuing them on the day before 
 the battle or the day before that. " It is 
 not," he says, " that addresses to an army 
 at the moment of action make soldiers 
 brave; their usefulness lies in their effect 
 on the course of the campaign, in neutraliz- 
 ing rumors, and in furnishing matter for 
 camp-fire talk." What a keen and compre- 
 hensive understanding of camp life this last 
 phrase reveals ! And it is strikingly typical, 
 as it is suggestive, of that creative imagina- 
 [ xviii ] 
 
Authors Preface 
 
 tion which enabled Napoleon to foresee and 
 estimate the action and reaction of things 
 and of words, to their most distant conse- 
 quences. The care for detail is there, and 
 whoever possesses it to this degree is born 
 to achievement, no matter in what direction 
 his activities lead him. 
 
 These, it seems to me, are some of the 
 conclusions this book has to suggest. There 
 is no pretense that it gives a new presenta- 
 tion of Napoleon, his qualities or his de- 
 fects; but it will serve to recall and fix in 
 the memory some of those utterances, which, 
 after a hundred years, still describe the social 
 order, and which are the fruits of a mind 
 which gained them at a cost entitling them 
 to be called experience. 
 
 JULES BERTAUT 
 
 [xix] 
 
TRANSLATORS' PREFACE 
 
 IT is now almost exactly a hundred years 
 since Waterloo. Every one of those 
 years has seen additions to the ever-growing 
 volume of Napoleonic literature. Opinion 
 regarding Napoleon is gradually becoming 
 clarified, as more and more the truth of 
 history is being separated from the interests, 
 the passions, and the limitations of knowl- 
 edge which have obscured it in the past. 
 
 This collection of Napoleon's sayings, 
 which M. Jules Bertaut has presented under 
 the title of Virilities, is one of the latest, as 
 in some respects it is one of the most im- 
 portant, of late contributions to the subject. 
 It is not that he has discovered new facts 
 about Napoleon. As he says himself, there 
 is probably little that concerns Napoleon 
 which is not now known. Because this is 
 so, we have been able to see Napoleon in 
 the light of fairly complete knowledge of 
 contemporaneous conditions. But what 
 [xxi] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 M. Bertaut has done, is to enable us to see, as 
 it were, through Napoleon's own eyes. We 
 are able otherwise to know what Napoleon 
 did, and what were the circumstances that 
 influenced him. But herein M. Bertaut has 
 given us, in brief, it is true, and by illustra- 
 tion rather than in complete detail, what 
 Napoleon said about the things he did, the 
 reasons he gave for doing them (which are 
 often only the reasons he wanted believed), 
 and -the purposes he had in mind. 
 
 It is true that there is nothing in this 
 collection of Napoleon's sayings which has 
 not been published somewhere before in the 
 collected editions of his orders, his corre- 
 spondence, or his formal works. But they 
 are collated and made available here; and 
 they have this advantage over any similar 
 previous collection, that in making them, 
 M. Bertaut has had all the advantage of the 
 fuller knowledge we have of Napoleon than 
 any previous generation has had. Precisely 
 because little that concerns Napoleon is now 
 unknown, M. Bertaut has been able to make 
 his selections from the great mass of Na- 
 poleon's utterances in such a way as to pre- 
 sent most fully and clearly, within the limits 
 [xxii] 
 
Translators' Preface 
 
 of space determined on, the workings of 
 Napoleon's mind to get whatever light on 
 his character and motives his own words 
 can throw. 
 
 This work was well received by the 
 French people on its publication shortly be- 
 fore the outbreak of the present war; and 
 so it is believed it will be of interest to 
 Americans. 
 
 In translating, the effort has been made 
 to present Napoleon's thought in its English 
 garb so as to convey the sense that Na- 
 poleon's forceful, nervous, though not al- 
 ways accurate French, conveys to French 
 readers. 
 
 In the notes, nothing more has been at- 
 tempted than to put the average American 
 reader on an equal footing, as to allusion 
 and reference to matters of French history 
 or French literature or French experience, 
 with the average French reader, as we may 
 assume him to be. It is only natural to 
 suppose that the average French reader has 
 such a degree of familiarity with these as 
 will enable him to catch, understandingly, 
 Napoleon's allusions to them; just as the 
 average American reader would be able to 
 [ xxiii ] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 catch, understandingly, equivalent allusions 
 and reference to our own history and litera- 
 ture. Hence the notes are confined, with at 
 most one or two exceptions, to matters of 
 French history or literature or national ex- 
 perience. As to allusions to men or things 
 of other countries or peoples, it is assumed 
 that the average American reader is already 
 on an equal footing, as to them, with the 
 French reader. 
 
 It has been attempted to give to American 
 readers just what M. Bertaut has given to 
 his countrymen. 
 
 HERBERT EDWARD LAW 
 CHARLES LINCOLN RHODES 
 
 [ xxiv ] 
 
THE CHARACTER OF 
 NAPOLEON 
 
 NAPOLEON was a man of action. 
 His mind was cast in that mould 
 which sees in events, not the relations they 
 bear to each other as parts of a universe, 
 but their possibilities to him who can seize 
 them for his own benefit. His was not a 
 contemplative mind; he neither looked for, 
 nor studied, the causes of things, but the 
 effects. He has therefore written no phi- 
 losophy, though much cynical wisdom. Nor 
 did he speak or write to set men thinking, 
 but to influence their actions. 
 
 Though a man of action, few have writ- 
 ten more than he did. His correspondence, 
 in thirty-two volumes, the publication of 
 which was begun in 1858, is only a part of 
 the recorded mass of ideas which came 
 from his mind. What is included in this 
 little book is, therefore, but the merest frag- 
 ment of what there was to choose from, 
 [xxv] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 But because Napoleon's mind and character 
 were of the cast and turn that they were, 
 what is here given will better serve its pur- 
 pose than would a much larger measure of 
 any other man's writings in regard to that 
 man. 
 
 Whoever expects to find consistency, or 
 continuity, in what Napoleon has written, 
 will be disappointed, because Napoleon had 
 no profound convictions to weave them- 
 selves like golden threads in the web of his 
 acts or his words. He was neither a phi- 
 losopher developing a system of philosophy, 
 nor a publicist seeking to guide the course 
 of events in accordance with an underlying 
 and permeating, but consistent body of phi- 
 losophical or scientific laws. He spoke or 
 wrote for the immediate effect of his words, 
 not for their future, or ultimate effect; nor 
 did he concern himself with any niceties of 
 consistency. 
 
 Being a man of action, he was constantly 
 doing things. To make the things he did 
 best serve the purpose for which he did 
 them, he felt called on, or found it con- 
 venient, to give some reason or explanation 
 for doing them. He was guided in the 
 [ xxvi ] 
 
The Character of Napoleon 
 
 reason or explanation he gave, not by his 
 real reason or purpose, but by what he 
 thought would serve him best at the time. 
 Naturally, there could be neither consist- 
 ency nor continuity in it. There was in it, 
 however, himself, the mirror and reflec- 
 tion of both his moral and his mental char- 
 acter. 
 
 It is because of this characteristic of Na- 
 poleon's utterances, that a selection from 
 his writings, such as this of M. Bertaut's, 
 can have, and does have, a real and an effec- 
 tive value. Few great men can be appraised 
 by samples of their writings. This is par- 
 ticularly true of those whose greatness 
 consists in their gift of ideas or good works 
 to the world. But Napoleon's greatness was 
 in his genius for coordination, for accom- 
 plishment. It included, of course, the power 
 to vision great things great in their mag- 
 nitude and in the power required to bring 
 them about. But this accomplishment add- 
 ed nothing, or little to the world's store. 
 His combinations were of what already 
 existed, and though incomparably great and 
 marvelous exhibitions of the power of the 
 human mind to do, they created nothing; 
 [ xxvii ] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 and though he conquered half of Europe he 
 left France no bigger than he found it. 
 
 And so Napoleon's writings are no 
 measure of the man, because they neither 
 express his thought, nor measure his great- 
 ness. His thought was expressed in action, 
 and his greatness in accomplishment. But 
 his writings do express his estimate of 
 moral relationships and of mankind. Moral 
 obligations he looked on as superstitions, 
 useful in holding the world in order for the 
 benefit of himself or anyone else, who, free 
 from such superstitions, was able to exploit 
 it. His estimate of mankind was of crea- 
 tures obeying certain impulses and suscep- 
 tible to certain kinds of stimulus, and 
 therefore very suitable for the use and 
 diversion of one, who, like himself, knew 
 how to use and control them. 
 
 It is these things, these qualities, that his 
 writings present. Unconsciously he has be- 
 trayed himself in them. What was said for 
 its immediate effect, becomes a measure of 
 ulterior motive. Just as astronomers de- 
 duce from the aberrations in the movements 
 of the planets the laws of the sidereal uni- 
 verse, so, from the inconsistencies and 
 [ xxviii ] 
 
The Character of Napoleon 
 
 contradictions of his recorded utterances 
 can be clearly deduced the dominating mo- 
 tives of his acts. 
 
 The great defect of Napoleon's character 
 was that he had no profound convictions of 
 duty or obligation or right; at any rate, no 
 profound convictions commensurate with 
 his intellectual powers. Therefore he had 
 nothing to guide him in the selection of 
 objects for accomplishment except the lust 
 and greed of power to do, which grew with 
 the growth, through exercise and expe- 
 rience, of that power. That is why there is 
 so much that is inexplicable particularly in 
 the later years of his career. He is ever 
 urged on by the unsatisfied power of accom- 
 plishment, without having profound moral 
 convictions to guide him either in the choice 
 of aim or means. 
 
 In this selection from Napoleon's record- 
 ed utterances, insignificant and fragmen- 
 tary as it is as compared with the whole 
 volume of them, can be seen clearly this 
 lack of profound convictions. In their place 
 are cynical half-truths, clever sophistry, 
 self-deception, because the depth and sound- 
 ness of the moral sense in mankind is un- 
 [ xxix ] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 realized by Napoleon. It is because his 
 writings do not represent or measure his 
 accomplishment, but -do represent the qual- 
 ity of his moral fiber, that Napoleon can, in 
 this respect, be appraised by sample; and 
 this collection which M. Bertaut has made 
 is an excellent sample. 
 
 H. E. L. 
 
 C. L. R. 
 
 [ XXX ] 
 
NAPOLEON IN HIS OWN WORDS 
 
NAPOLEON 
 
 In His Own Words 
 
 I 
 
 ON SUCCESS 
 
 A PRINCE, criticised by his subjects, 
 should never attempt to justify him- 
 self to them. 
 
 Collective crimes incriminate no one. 
 
 The code of health for nations is not 
 that for individuals. 
 
 A sovereign ought always to confiscate 
 publicity for his own profit. 
 
 There are only two forces that unite men 
 fear and interest. All great revolutions 
 originate in fear, for the play of interests 
 does not lead to accomplishment. 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 Audacity succeeds as often as it fails; 
 in life it has an even chance. 
 
 The superior man is never in anyone's 
 way. 
 
 Profit by the favors of Fortune while her 
 caprices favor you; fear only that she will 
 change out of spite; she is a woman. 
 
 Who saves his country violates no law. 
 Men, like paintings, need a favorable day. 
 
 There are so many laws that no one is 
 safe from hanging. 
 
 Success is the most convincing talker in 
 the world. 
 
 As a rule it is circumstances that make 
 men. 
 
 Impatience is a great obstacle to success; 
 he who treats everything with brusqueness 
 gathers nothing, or only immature fruit 
 which will never ripen. 
 
 [2] 
 
On Success 
 
 Men are like numerals they are given 
 value by their position. 
 
 Second-rate men, however ambitious, 
 have only commonplace ideas. 
 
 When a man is a favorite of Fortune she 
 never takes him unawares, and, however 
 astonishing her favors may be, she finds 
 him ready. 
 
 One must indeed be ignorant of the 
 methods of genius to suppose that it allows 
 itself to be cramped by forms. Forms are 
 for mediocrity, and it is fortunate that me- 
 diocrity can act only according to routine. 
 Ability takes its flight unhindered. 
 
 No one can disguise to himself the fact 
 that a dead man is nothing more than a dead 
 man, and a living man of the slightest pre- 
 tensions is stronger than the dead man's 
 memory. When a great man dies, one who 
 has rendered high service to his country, 
 the first feeling experienced is one of satis- 
 faction; a weight has been removed; ambi- 
 tions are freed (See Note i). We may 
 
 [3] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 weep a year afterwards when agitations dis- 
 tract the country; but in the first access of 
 feeling there is not even a tinge of regret; 
 last wishes are unconsidered. 
 
 Conquerors should know the genius and 
 the language of every religion. They ought 
 to be Moslems in Egypt and Catholics in 
 France, to the extent, at least, of giving 
 sympathetic protection. 
 
 The publication of false news is a petty 
 means of producing important effects, but 
 one of which even cool heads cannot fore- 
 tell the exact results, since each one to whom 
 such news comes interprets it in accordance 
 with his prejudices and his partisanship. 
 
 In the eyes of empire builders men are 
 not men, but instruments. 
 
 Equality exists only in theory. 
 
 The secret of the power to command is to 
 be strong, because in strength there is 
 neither error nor illusion; it is truth in all 
 its nakedness. 
 
 [4] 
 
On Success 
 
 Men are more easily governed through 
 their vices than through their virtues. 
 
 Correctly analyzed, political liberty is a 
 convenient fable invented by governments 
 to lull the governed. 
 
 The torment of precautions often exceeds 
 the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes 
 better to abandon one's self to destiny. 
 
 A sovereign obliged to respect the law 
 may be contributing to the loss of his realm. 
 
 A legislature is a serviceable means of 
 obtaining from a people what the king 
 might not dare ask of them. 
 
 Nothing has ever been established except 
 by the sword. 
 
 Noisy festivals are a necessity. Block- 
 heads love noise, and the multitude are 
 blockheads. 
 
 The heart of a statesman should be in 
 his head. 
 
 [5] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 A new-born government must dazzle. 
 
 In planning one's course in life, we should 
 always reserve the right to laugh tomorrow 
 at the ideas of yesterday. 
 
 Never depend on the multitude, full of 
 instability and whims; always take precau- 
 tions against it. 
 
 Events all hang by a hair. The clever 
 man profits by everything, neglecting noth- 
 ing that may give him any advantage. The 
 less clever, by slighting some seeming trifle, 
 loses all. 
 
 From triumph to downfall is but a step. 
 I have seen a trifle decide the most im- 
 portant issues in the gravest affairs. 
 
 It is only by prudence, wisdom, and 
 dexterity, that great ends are attained and 
 obstacles overcome. Without these quali- 
 ties nothing succeeds. 
 
 There are different ways of assassinating 
 a man by pistol, sword, poison, or moral 
 [6] 
 
On Success 
 
 assassination. They are the same in their 
 results only that the last is the more cruel. 
 
 By taking for your justification the pre- 
 tended principle of general utility you can 
 go to whatever lengths you want. 
 
 A lie is useless, since it deceives but once. 
 
 Nature in creating certain men designed 
 them for subordinate positions. 
 
 Great men are meteors, who, by their 
 burning, light the world. 
 
 If aggressors are wrong above, they are 
 right here below. 
 
 There are vices and virtues of circum- 
 stances. 
 
 Since the discovery of printing the in- 
 telligent are called on to govern ; and those 
 who govern, slave. 
 
 He who knows how to flatter also knows 
 how to slander. 
 
 [7] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 The consummate courtier must be one 
 who scorns the object of his flatteries, and 
 is ever ready to destroy him. 
 
 There are crises where the good of the 
 nation requires the condemnation of the in- 
 nocent. 
 
 Those who cannot profit by circumstances 
 are ninnies. 
 
 The honest are so easy going and rogues 
 so alert, that it is often necessary to employ 
 rogues. 
 
 Put a rogue in the limelight and he will 
 act like an honest man. 
 
 It is easier to destroy than to restore 
 confidence. 
 
 The man fitted for affairs and authority 
 never considers individuals, but things and 
 their consequences. 
 
 A congress of the powers is deceit agreed 
 on between diplomats it is the pen of 
 [8] 
 
On Success 
 
 Machiavelli combined with the scimitar of 
 Mahomet. 
 
 Destiny urges me to a goal of which I 
 am ignorant. Until that goal is attained I 
 am invulnerable, unassailable. When Des- 
 tiny has accomplished her purpose in me, a 
 fly may suffice to destroy me. 
 
 Necessity dominates inclination, will, and 
 right. 
 
 The most dangerous counselor is self- 
 love. 
 
 To be a successful conqueror one must 
 be cruel. 
 
 The strong man is the one who is able 
 to intercept at will the communication be- 
 tween the senses and the mind. 
 
 Men who hesitate never succeed in their 
 undertakings. 
 
 One never mounts so high as when one 
 does not know how high he is going. 
 
 [9] 
 
Napoleon in His Own PFords 
 
 What is begun in feebleness belongs of 
 right to audacity, which makes it legiti- 
 mately its own by seizing it. 
 
 There is nothing so hard to harness as a 
 people which has already shaken off the 
 pack saddle. 
 
 The only thing to be done with those one 
 is no longer able to recompense, is to dis- 
 grace them. 
 
II 
 
 PSYCHOLOGY AND MORALS 
 
 MEN have their virtues and their vices, 
 their heroisms and their perversities ; 
 men are neither wholly good nor wholly bad, 
 but possess and practice all that there is of 
 good and bad here below. Such is the 
 general rule. Temperament, education, the 
 accidents of life, are modifying factors. 
 Outside of this, everything is ordered ar- 
 rangement, everything is chance. Such has 
 been my rule of expectation and it has 
 usually brought me success. 
 
 Man is only a more perfect and better 
 reasoning animal. 
 
 Whatever misanthropists may say, in- 
 grates and the perverse are exceptions in the 
 human species. 
 
 A philosopher has contended that men 
 are born wicked; it would be a very 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 difficult matter and a useless one to. deter- 
 mine by inquiry whether he is right. But 
 this much is certain, the great mass of 
 society are far from being depraved; for 
 if a large majority were criminal or in- 
 clined to break the laws, where would the 
 force or power be to prevent or constrain 
 them? And herein is the real blessing of 
 civilization, because this happy result has its 
 origin in her bosom, growing out of her very 
 nature. 
 
 Man seldom acts wholly true to his char- 
 acter; he yields to the violence of his feel- 
 ings, or is carried away by passion. 
 
 Our physical qualities are developed by 
 our dangers and our needs. 
 
 When small men attempt great enter- 
 prises, they always end by reducing them to 
 the level of their mediocrity. 
 
 What power there is in imagination in 
 the imagination of men ! The English sail- 
 ors at St. Helena did not know me, had 
 never seen me, only heard of me, yet what 
 [12] 
 
Psychology and Morals 
 
 did they not see in me, and what did they 
 not do in my behalf ! And the same strange 
 spectacle is repeated in every age, in every 
 country, in every century. Such is fanat- 
 icism. Yes, imagination governs the world. 
 
 Man loves the marvelous. It has an irre- 
 sistible charm for him. He is always ready 
 to leave that with which he is familiar to 
 pursue vain inventions. 
 
 What are we? What is the future? What 
 is the past? What magic fluid envelops 
 us and hides from us the things it is most 
 important for us to know? We are born, 
 we live, and we die in the midst of the 
 marvelous. 
 
 To do all that one is able to do, is to be 
 a man ; to do all that one would like to do, 
 would be to be a god. 
 
 Man achieves in life only by commanding 
 the capabilities nature has given him, or by 
 creating them within himself by education 
 and by knowing how to profit by the difficul- 
 ties encountered. 
 
 [13] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 It is said that when we know the type 
 of a man we have the key to his conduct. 
 This is untrue. A thoroughly honest man 
 may do an evil act; or another an unjust 
 act, without being wicked. In such cases 
 the man hardly ever acts in accordance with 
 his type, but from some secret purpose, 
 which up to that moment has been hid- 
 den in the deepest recesses of his heart. 
 It is a mistake, too, to say that the face is 
 the mirror of the soul. The truth is, men 
 are very hard to know, and yet, not to be 
 deceived, we must judge them by their pres- 
 ent actions, but for the present only. 
 
 A mind without memory is a fortress 
 without a garrison. 
 
 One is more certain to influence men, to 
 produce more effect on them, by absurdities 
 than by sensible ideas. 
 
 It is not true that men never change; 
 they change for the worse, as well as for 
 the better. It is not true they are ungrate- 
 ful; more often the benefactor rates his 
 favors higher than their worth; and often 
 
Psychology and Morals 
 
 too he does not allow for circumstances. If 
 few men have the moral force to resist 
 impulses, most men do carry within them- 
 selves the germs of virtues as well as of 
 vices, of heroism as well as of cowardice. 
 Such is human nature education and cir- 
 cumstances do the rest. 
 
 Ordinarily men exercise their memory 
 much more than their judgment. 
 
 Men are sheep, they always follow the 
 leader. 
 
 How many really capable men are chil- 
 dren more than once during the day! 
 
 When we know our moral weakness we 
 ought to know how to care for our soul as 
 we know how to care for our leg or arm. 
 
 I am of the opinion that the good or bad 
 conduct of a child depends entirely on its 
 mother. 
 
 There is nothing so imperious as feeble- 
 ness which feels itself supported by force. 
 
 [15] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 The superior man is not by nature impres- 
 sionable. We praise him, we blame him; 
 it matters little to him. It is to his own 
 judgment that he listens. 
 
 The shortcomings of children are often 
 the result of the bad education they have 
 received from their parents. 
 
 One does well only that which one does 
 one's self. 
 
 Good sense makes men capable. Self- 
 respect is the breeze which swells the sails 
 and wafts their barks into port. 
 
 Death is a dreamless sleep. 
 
 True character stands the test of emer- 
 gencies. Do not be mistaken, it is weak- 
 ness from which the awakening is rude. 
 
 Life is a fleeting dream that loses itself. 
 
 Life is strewn with so many dangers, and 
 can be the source of so many misfortunes, 
 that death is not the greatest of them. 
 [16] 
 
Psychology and Morals 
 
 How many seemingly impossible things 
 have been accomplished by resolute men be- 
 cause they had to do, or die. 
 
 The private life of a man is a light by 
 which one may instructively read. 
 
 Men are greedy for emotion; their en- 
 thusiasm is his who can cleverly arouse it. 
 
 There is no strength without skill. 
 
 A man. becomes the creature of his uni- 
 form. 
 
 With audacity one can undertake any- 
 thing, but not do everything. 
 
 Interminable matters are those that pre- 
 sent no difficulties. 
 
 If success were not a chimera, it would 
 not be so alluring. 
 
 The fool has one great advantage over a 
 man of sense he is always satisfied with 
 himself. 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 Force is never anything but force, en- 
 thusiasm never anything but enthusiasm. 
 But persuasiveness endures and imprints 
 itself on the heart. 
 
 We only believe the things we want to 
 believe. 
 
 To be believed, make the truth unbeliev- 
 able. 
 
 There are some people who behave 
 decently only toward their enemies. 
 
 Simpletons talk of the past, wise men of 
 the present, and fools of the future. 
 
 Patriotism is the first of virtues. 
 
 The ambition to rule over other minds 
 is the strongest of passions. 
 
 Most sentiments are traditions. 
 
 The man who practices virtue only in the 
 hope of gaining reputation, is toying with 
 vice. 
 
Psychology and Morals 
 
 A man with neither courage nor bravery 
 is a mere thing. 
 
 I have no regard for those who affect to 
 despise death; the important thing is to 
 know how to endure the inevitable. 
 
 Each hour wasted in youth is a hazard 
 of misfortune taken for the future. 
 
 The superior man is undisturbed ; praised 
 or blamed, he goes on. 
 
 In a narrow sphere great men are blun- 
 derers. 
 
 Self-interest is the key to commonplace 
 actions. 
 
 Severity presumes more faults than it 
 represses. 
 
 Strong souls resist pleasures of the senses 
 as mariners shun reefs. 
 
 To debate in danger is to hold back in the 
 traces. 
 
 [19] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 Adversity is the midwife of genius. 
 
 From wit to good sense is farther than 
 one thinks. 
 
 Nothing is more difficult than to decide. 
 
 A stroke of fate is like striking a money 
 balance; it indicates a man's real worth. 
 
 Nothing that degrades a man is useful 
 for long. 
 
 Happiness grows out of circumstances; 
 felicity out of affections. 
 
 There is nothing noble that is not great; 
 greatness and immensity make us overlook 
 many defects. 
 
 Chance takes account of all our follies. 
 
 Judgment matures as well in success as 
 in misfortunes. 
 
 Time is a necessary element. When Ar- 
 chimedes offered to raise the world with 
 [20] 
 
Psychology and Morals 
 
 a lever and fulcrum, he required time. God 
 took seven days to create the universe. 
 
 Nothing is so rare as steadfast devotion. 
 
 Intelligence precedes force. Force itself 
 is nothing without intelligence. In the 
 heroic age the leader was the strongest man ; 
 with civilization he has become the most 
 intelligent of the brave. 
 
 In pardoning we rise above those who 
 insult us. 
 
 Of what blunders are not the vanity and 
 self love of an ignorant man capable. 
 
 The man of projects is always right in 
 drawing-rooms. 
 
 No man has friends; it is his good 
 fortune that has. 
 
 The fire of youth, the pride of blood, the 
 death of hope, all produce enthusiasts and 
 martyrs and bring forth courageous and 
 desperate decisions. 
 
 [21] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 Temptation reaches the heart through 
 the eye; we are always tempted to yield to 
 what we admire. 
 
 It is asked why misfortunes feared often 
 affect us more than those actually experi- 
 enced. It is because, in imagination as in 
 mathematics, we cannot measure the power 
 of the unknown. 
 
 When one has never had reverses, he is 
 due to have them proportionate to his good 
 fortune. 
 
 How far short men fall from equaling 
 their pretensions! Do they always know, 
 themselves, what they are? 
 
 Genius does not transmit itself from pa- 
 rent to son. There has never been, so far as 
 I know, one single instance in all history of 
 two great poets, two great mathematicians, 
 two great conquerors, two great monarchs, 
 one of whom was a son of the other. 
 
 Genius is fire from heaven; but it rarely 
 finds a vessel ready to receive it. 
 
 [22] 
 
Psychology and Morals 
 
 Morality is in itself a complete code. 
 
 True happiness, the only true strength, 
 all the consolations of mankind are in 
 religion and morality. Hence all moral 
 religions are beautiful. Aside from dogmas 
 more or less absurd, which, to understand, 
 we must know the people among whom 
 they originated, what is there in the Vedas, 
 the Koran, the old Testament, in Confucius, 
 in them all in a word? a pure morality 
 that is to say, protection to the weak, respect 
 for the laws of the country, and a belief in 
 one God. But the Gospel alone offers mo- 
 rality freed from absurdities. 
 
 One must learn to forgive and not to hold 
 a hostile, bitter attitude of mind, which 
 offends those about us and prevents us 
 from enjoying ourselves ; one must recognize 
 human shortcomings and adjust himself to 
 them rather than to be constantly finding 
 fault with them. 
 
 It is not necessary to prohibit or encour- 
 age oddities of conduct which are not 
 harmful. 
 
 [23] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 I despise ingratitude as the most infamous 
 defect of the heart. 
 
 Moralizing is very often only a disguise 
 for slander. 
 
 The best way to keep one's word is not 
 to give it. 
 
 Wounds given honor never heal; they 
 destroy the moral fiber. 
 
 It is not to be disputed that in the mar- 
 riage relation the oriental family is entirely 
 different from the occidental family. Moral 
 codes therefore are not universal. Man is 
 the minister of Nature, and social relations 
 follow racial differences. 
 
 We recognize an honest man by his con- 
 duct toward his wife, his family, and his 
 servants. 
 
 Has a man the right to kill him- 
 self? Yes, if his death will injure no one, 
 and life is a misfortune to him. When is 
 life a misfortune to a man? When it offers 
 
 [24] 
 
Psychology and Morals 
 
 him nothing but suffering and sorrow; but 
 as suffering and sorrow change constantly, 
 there is no moment in life when a man has 
 the right to kill himself, except at the 
 moment of his death ; since then, only, is the 
 proof forthcoming that his life has been 
 only a web of misfortunes and suffering. 
 The man who, succumbing to the weight of 
 present ills, seeks death, does an injustice 
 to himself, yielding in despair and feeble- 
 ness to the fantasy of the moment, to which 
 he sacrifices all the possibilities of the future. 
 
 There are rogues sufficiently roguish to 
 act like honest men. 
 
 Suicide is the act of a gambler who has 
 lost everything, or of a ruined prodigal. It 
 has always been a maxim with me that a 
 man showed more true courage in support- 
 ing the ills of life than by ending it. 
 
 True heroism consists in rising superior 
 to misfortune. 
 
 The Grenadier Gobin committed suicide 
 for love. The circumstances offered a good 
 
 [25] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 opportunity. It was the second event of the 
 kind that had happened in the corps within 
 a month. The First Consul directed that 
 there should be included in the orders to 
 the Guard : " That a soldier ought to over- 
 come the melancholy and bitterness of hope- 
 less passion; there is as much true courage 
 in suffering with constancy the despair of 
 the soul, as in standing firm under the fire 
 of a battery; to surrender to disappointment 
 without resisting, to commit suicide to 
 escape from it, is to abandon the field of 
 battle without having gained the victory/' 
 
 To give suitably is to honor ; to give much 
 is to corrupt 
 
 When a man has no courage, he neces- 
 sarily lacks head, and is unfit to command 
 either himself or others. 
 
 The human family has two virtues which 
 we cannot value too highly courage in 
 man, and modesty in woman. 
 
 Let the night dissipate the injuries of the 
 day. 
 
 [26] 
 
Psychology and Morals 
 
 There is no compromise with honor. 
 
 So much the worse for those who do not 
 believe in virtue. 
 
Ill 
 
 LOVE AND MARRIAGE 
 
 FAMILY ties have always seemed to me 
 sacred. I have never been able to be- 
 lieve that we can break them without dis- 
 honor, and failing in that which is most 
 sacred to man. 
 
 In love the only safety is in flight. 
 
 Love is the occupation of the idle, the 
 distraction of the soldier, the danger of the 
 monarch. 
 
 Marriage ought not to be permitted 
 between those who have not known each 
 other more than six months. 
 
 The civil magistrate who would make im- 
 pressive the woman's promise of obedience 
 and fidelity, ought to have a formulary. It 
 ought to be emphasized that in leaving the 
 protection of the family the woman passes 
 
 [28] 
 
Love and Marriage 
 
 under that of her husband. Magistrates 
 perform the marriage ceremony without 
 any solemnity. It altogether lacks impres- 
 siveness. It should be given a moral quality. 
 Observe the priests; they preach a sermon. 
 Even if it is not heard by the bridal couple 
 wholly occupied with other things, it is by 
 the others present. 
 
 Marriage is without doubt the perfect 
 social state. 
 
 Love is always the occupation of the idle 
 ranks of society. 
 
 In great crises it is the portion of wives 
 to make reverses supportable. 
 
 We will hear nothing in derogation of 
 women, we peoples of the Occident. We 
 hold them, which is a great mistake, as being 
 almost our own equals. The peoples of the 
 orient are wiser and juster than we. They 
 have declared them the natural property of 
 man. And, in effect, Nature has made them 
 our slaves. It is only because of our fool- 
 ishness that they have dared to pretend to 
 
 [29] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 be our equals. They abuse their privileges 
 in order to corrupt and rule us. For one 
 who inspires us to good, there are a hundred 
 who lead us into folly. 
 
 Woman was given to man in order that 
 there might be children. Now one woman 
 alone cannot suffice a man for that purpose ; 
 she cannot be his wife while she is nursing; 
 she cannot be his wife while she is sick; she 
 ceases to be his wife when she is no longer 
 able to bear him children. Man, whom 
 Nature has limited neither by age nor by 
 any of these inconveniences, ought therefore 
 to have several wives. 
 
 If a man is unfaithful to his wife, con- 
 fesses it and repents of it, no consequences 
 result. The wife is angry, forgives, is 
 reconciled, sometimes exacting something 
 as the price of reconciliation. It is a differ- 
 ent matter if the infidelity is the wife's. She 
 will confess and repent of it in vain, for 
 who will guarantee that no consequences 
 will follow? The injury is irreparable. It 
 cannot be and ought not to be condoned. 
 It is therefore only the failure of judgment, 
 
 [30] 
 
Love and Marriage 
 
 of general recognition and the defect of 
 education, which makes it possible for a 
 woman to believe herself equal in all things 
 to her husband. There is however nothing 
 dishonoring in the difference. Each have 
 their privileges and their obligations. Your 
 privileges, ladies, are beauty, grace, and 
 seductive power; your obligations, depend- 
 ence and submission. 
 
 And moreover of what can you complain 
 after all? Have we not accorded you a 
 soul? You know there are compensations 
 in philosophy. You pretend to equality? 
 But that is foolishness. Woman is our 
 property ; we are not hers, for she bears us 
 children but we do not bear her any. She 
 is therefore the man's property as the fruit 
 tree is the gardener's. 
 
 A beautiful woman appeals to the eye; a 
 good woman appeals to the heart. One is 
 a jewel, the other a treasure. 
 
 The man who allows himself to be gov- 
 erned entirely by his wife is neither himself 
 nor his wife; he is nothing. 
 
 [313 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 I firmly belive that love does more harm 
 than good, and that it would be a blessing 
 from divine providence, if it were banished 
 and men delivered from it. 
 
 The most important woman in the world, 
 living or dead, is the one who has borne the 
 most children. 
 
 How many men are culpable only because 
 of their weakness for women ! 
 
 Marriage, to be happy, requires a constant 
 exchange of confidences. 
 
 Marriage finds no counterpart in nature. 
 
 A woman needs six months of Paris to 
 know what is hers to have, and her realm. 
 
 Love is folly committed by two. 
 
 Marriage is not always the result of 
 love. Most young people marry in order 
 to secure independence and a position, and 
 take spouses who do not suit them in any 
 way. The law ought to provide a remedy at 
 
 [32] 
 
Love and Marriage 
 
 the moment they realize they have been en- 
 tirely mistaken. But this indulgence ought 
 to favor neither imprudence nor passion. A 
 woman should be permitted but one divorce, 
 and should not be allowed to remarry for 
 five years afterwards. There should be no 
 divorce after ten years of marriage. 
 
 The life filled with love is the guarantee 
 of a happy home. It assures the honor of 
 the wife, and the respect of the husband. 
 It maintains confidence and good relations. 
 
 The mental inferiority of women, the 
 instability of their ideas, their destiny in 
 the social order, the necessity of inspiring 
 in them a constant submission, and a soft 
 and complaisant charity all these make 
 the yoke of religion indispensable. 
 
 Women, when they are bad, are worse 
 than men, and more disposed to commit 
 crime. When the sex, which is sweet by 
 inheritance, once becomes degraded, it 
 falls into greater excesses than the other. 
 Women are always either much better or 
 much worse than men. 
 
 [33] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 I do not believe it is in our nature to love 
 impartially. We deceive ourselves when we 
 think we can love two beings, even our own 
 children, equally. There is always a dom- 
 inant affection. 
 
 A man ought never to quarrel with a 
 woman; he should hear her unreason in 
 silence. 
 
IV 
 
 THINGS POLITICAL 
 
 IN politics nothing is immutable. Events 
 carry within them an invincible power. 
 The unwise destroy themselves in resistance. 
 The skillful accept events, take strong hold 
 of them and direct them. 
 
 The great difficulty with politics is, that 
 there are no established principles. 
 
 If, for the sound and sagacious policies 
 appropriate to a great nation having pro- 
 found destinies to fulfill,- the demagoguery 
 of a party is substituted when powerful 
 enemies confront her, nothing effectual will 
 be accomplished. 
 
 The most dangerous power is an abstract 
 sentiment in control of the public authority. 
 
 It is only with prudence, sagacity, and 
 much dexterity that great aims are ac- 
 
 [35] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 complished, and all obstacles surmounted. 
 Otherwise nothing is accomplished. 
 
 Power is most dangerous when the public 
 authority is obsessed by an abstract senti- 
 ment. 
 
 Government is difficult when one is con- 
 scientious. 
 
 One may lose popularity by a peccadillo 
 as well as by a stroke of statesmanship; 
 when one knows the art of reigning, one 
 stakes his credit only on careful consider- 
 ation. 
 
 What constitutes popularity? Good 
 natured complaisance? Who was more 
 popular, more complaisant than the unfor- 
 tunate Louis xvi? But what was his fate? 
 He perished! The truth is that one ought 
 to serve his people worthily, and not strive 
 solely to please them. The best way to gain 
 a people is to do that which is best for them. 
 Nothing is more dangerous than to flatter 
 a people. If it does not get what it wants 
 immediately, it is irritated and thinks that 
 
 [36] 
 
Things Political 
 
 promises have not been kept; and if then it 
 is resisted, it hates so much the more as it 
 feels itself deceived. 
 
 One does not govern a nation by half- 
 measures. In all public acts force, order, 
 and consistency are necessary. 
 
 The duties of the head of the nation are 
 not those of the people. The duty of the 
 people is to obey the laws. 
 
 The thing to avoid is not so much error 
 as self-contradiction. It is especially by 
 the latter that authority loses its force. 
 
 Lead the ideas of your time and they will 
 accompany and support you; fall behind 
 them and they drag you along with them; 
 oppose them and they will overwhelm you. 
 
 There is no such thing as an absolute 
 despotism; it is only relative. A man can- 
 not wholly free himself from obligation to 
 his fellows. A sultan who cut off heads 
 from caprice, would quickly lose his own 
 in the same way. Excesses tend to check 
 
 [37] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 themselves by reason of their own violence. 
 What the ocean gains in one place it loses 
 in another. 
 
 We are made weak both by idleness and 
 distrust of ourselves. Unfortunate, indeed, 
 is he who suffers from both. If he is a 
 mere individual he becomes nothing; if he 
 is a king he is lost. 
 
 A prince should suspect everything. 
 
 In politics, an absurdity is not an impedi- 
 ment. 
 
 One who wants to be a force in govern- 
 ment must be ready to put himself in peril; 
 if need be, to dare assassination. 
 
 Government must be administered for 
 the general good without worrying about 
 whether it pleases this or that individual. 
 If one attempts a middle course, serving 
 each party, he attempts an absurd equili- 
 brium, arouses dissatisfaction in the great 
 majority where good sense is always found; 
 for it is the acquiescence of the great body 
 
 [38] 
 
Things Political 
 
 of the people that makes public opinion 
 sovereign. 
 
 Public opinion is the thermometer a 
 monarch should constantly consult. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that rigorous 
 authority and justice are the kindness of 
 kings. The kindness of kings and that of 
 individuals are not to be confounded. 
 
 I do not allow myself to be imposed upon 
 by reputations. Former services I consider 
 only a school in which one ought to have 
 learned to serve better. Within a short time 
 I have become an old administrator. The 
 most difficult art is not in the choice of men, 
 but in giving to the men chosen the highest 
 service of which they are capable. 
 
 The great orators who sway assemblies 
 by the brilliancy of their speech, are in gen- 
 eral very ordinary statesmen. It is useless 
 to contend with them by words; they will 
 always have more sonorous phrases than 
 yours. The thing to do is to meet their 
 glibness with precise, logical reasoning. 
 
 [39] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 Their strength is in vagueness. One must 
 pin them down to facts. This method is 
 death to their pretensions. 
 
 Immorality is, without possibility of con- 
 tradiction, the worst thing that can be found 
 in a sovereign, for the reason that it at once 
 makes immorality fashionable. It is emu- 
 lated as a point of honor. It fortifies all 
 vices, strikes at all virtue, infects society 
 with a veritable plague. It is the scourge of 
 a nation. 
 
 I would conceive a bad opinion of a gov- 
 ernment all of whose edicts were drafted in 
 a literary style. The true art is that each 
 edict have the style and character of the 
 class it affects. 
 
 Wherever there is a source of incontest- 
 able power, men will be found to draw it to 
 themselves. 
 
 France is the country where officials have 
 the least influence. To rely on them is to 
 build on sand. Great things are done in 
 France only by relying on the people. More- 
 
 [40] 
 
Things Political 
 
 over a government ought to seek its support 
 from that very source. 
 
 Posterity alone rightly judges kings. Pos- 
 terity alone has the right to accord or with- 
 hold honors. 
 
 Democracy exalts sovereignty; but aris- 
 tocracy alone maintains it. 
 
 The trade of being a king is not child's 
 play in this century. It is inevitable that 
 the manners of kings should change with 
 the manners of the people. In order to have 
 the right to the services of the people, it is 
 necessary to begin by serving them well. 
 
 We must distinguish between the acts 
 of a sovereign, as such, and those of an 
 individual who is unconstrained as to his 
 opinions. State policy permits, and even 
 requires, in the one, what should be without 
 excuse in the other. 
 
 A government in appealing to the intelli- 
 gence of all its citizens, acts in its own 
 interest and strengthens the social edifice; 
 
 [41] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 every citizen ought to be interested in the 
 security of the state. 
 
 A throne is only a bench covered with 
 velvet. 
 
 Obedience to public authority ought not 
 to be based either on ignorance or stupidity. 
 
 No constitution continues unchanged ; 
 the change it undergoes depends on men 
 and circumstances. If there are objections 
 to an overstrong government, there are still 
 more to a weak one. Every day it is con- 
 strained to violate positive laws ; there is no 
 other way to do. Without doing it, it is 
 impossible to get along. 
 
 I had Baumont and two hundred others 
 in the west arrested as grain smugglers. 
 There was not a single minister who might 
 not have been accused. The government 
 could not be arbitrary, because it did not 
 have the support of a feudal system, a class 
 financially interested in it, nor prejudices. 
 The day the government should become 
 arbitrary it would lose the support of public 
 
 [42] 
 
Things Political 
 
 opinion and would be lost. There was need 
 of an extraordinary council for these un- 
 foreseen cases. The senate served very 
 well. 
 
 I complained of wrongs done a French- 
 man at Venice, and demanded reparation. 
 They urged the laws as a difficulty in the 
 way. I threatened to destroy them and 
 pointed out that they had the Council of 
 Ten and the Judges of the Inquisition, etc. 
 The Judges of the Inquisition easily found 
 a way to meet my demands. 
 
 The true policy of a government is to 
 make use of aristocracy, but under the 
 forms and in the spirit of democracy. 
 
 A form of government which is not the 
 result of a long series of emergencies, of 
 misfortunes, and of efforts and attempts on 
 the part of a people, will never take very 
 deep root. 
 
 A prince should never allow the spirit of 
 intrigue and faction to triumph over his 
 authority, or a mean spirit of unsteadiness 
 
 [43] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 and opposition to discredit that fundamental 
 sovereignty which is the foundation of 
 social order and the true source of all that 
 benefits a people. 
 
 The old patched monarchies will last only 
 as long as the people do not realize their 
 own power. Such structures always perish 
 through their foundations. 
 
 Legislation is a weapon that a govern- 
 ment ought always to use when national 
 prosperity is in danger. 
 
 The men who have changed the universe 
 have never accomplished it by changing 
 officials but always by inspiring the people. 
 
 Prudence is good when one has the choice 
 of means. When one hasn't, it is daring 
 which achieves success. 
 
 Republics are not to be made from old 
 monarchies. 
 
 In revolutions everything is speedily for- 
 gotten. The good that you do today will 
 be forgotten tomorrow. Conditions once 
 
 [44] 
 
Things Political 
 
 changed, gratitude, friendship, relationship 
 all ties are broken, and each person seeks 
 his own interest. 
 
 In national crises, the reasonable man is 
 the one who is considered feeble, because 
 passion resembles force. 
 
 A man at the head of a struggling party 
 in civil turmoil is called a rebel chief. But 
 when he has succeeded, when he has done 
 great deeds, and established his country and 
 himself, he is given the name of general, and 
 sovereign, and that sort of thing. It is 
 success that gives him the title. If he had 
 been unfortunate he would have continued 
 to be a rebel chief, and perhaps have per- 
 ished on the scaffold. It is success which 
 makes men great. 
 
 Anarchy invariably leads to arbitrary 
 government. 
 
 Provisional governments placed in diffi- 
 cult circumstances ought to concern them- 
 selves exclusively with the public safety and 
 the interests of the country. 
 
 [45] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 It is inevitable that a government which 
 follows the storms of revolution and which 
 is menaced by enemies from without and 
 disturbed by intrigue within, will be some- 
 what harsh. 
 
 Insurrection and the emigration of the 
 nobility are diseases of the skin. Terrorism 
 is an internal disease. 
 
 In revolutions, like attracts like, as it does 
 in the physical world. 
 
 A universal rule: Never a revolution 
 without terror. 
 
 Among nations and in revolutions, aris- 
 tocracy always exists. If you attempt to 
 get rid of it by destroying the nobility, it 
 immediately re-establishes itself among the 
 rich and powerful families of the third 
 estate. Destroy it there, and it survives and 
 takes refuge among the leaders of workmen 
 and of the people. A prince gains nothing 
 by this shifting of aristocracy. On the con- 
 trary he re-establishes stable conditions by 
 permitting it to continue as it is, readjust- 
 
 [46] 
 
Things Political 
 
 ing, however, the old order to the new 
 principles. 
 
 With good fortune one renders a people 
 glorious ; it requires much firmness to make 
 them happy. 
 
 Sooner or later the public interests over- 
 come minor prejudices. 
 
 In order that a people may be free, it is 
 necessary that the governed be sages, and 
 those who govern, gods. 
 
 Incidents should not govern state pol- 
 icies; but state policies, incidents. 
 
 Neutrality consists in having equal 
 weights and measures for each. In state- 
 craft it is nonsense, for our interest always 
 lies with the triumph of one or the other. 
 
 Constitutions are good only as we make 
 progress under them. 
 
 The policy which is not moral must glo- 
 rify morality. 
 
 [47] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 Display is to power what ceremony is to 
 religion. 
 
 Commerce unites men. Whatever unites 
 men leads them to act together. Commerce 
 is therefore essentially dangerous to arbi- 
 trary authority. 
 
 One may risk a coup d'etat to gain power, 
 but never to strengthen it; for in that case 
 the supreme authority is attacked. 
 
 The laws of circumstance are abolished 
 by new circumstances. 
 
 A good philosopher makes a bad citizen. 
 
 A man will fight harder for his interests 
 than for his rights. 
 
 To win confidence in advance of success, 
 is the most difficult political accomplish- 
 ment. 
 
 When deplorable weakness and indecision 
 manifest themselves in the counsels of 
 power; when, yielding in turn to the influ- 
 
 [48] 
 
Things Political 
 
 ence of opposing parties, and living from 
 day to day without fixed plans or a deter- 
 mined policy, it has shown the completeness 
 of its incapacity, and when the most mod- 
 erate citizens are forced to admit that the 
 state is no longer governed ; when, in fact, 
 to its incompetency the administration suf- 
 fers, what in the eyes of a proud people is 
 the greatest humiliation possible, I mean to 
 say the contempt of foreign nations, then 
 a vague inquietude spreads throughout the 
 community, concern for national preserva- 
 tion arises, and, turning its gaze on itself, 
 it seems to search for a man able to save it. 
 Such a tutelary genius (See Note 2) every 
 numerous nation contains within itself, 
 though sometimes he is slow in appearing. 
 In truth, it is not sufficient that he exists, 
 he must be known he must know himself. 
 Until then all efforts are vain, all expedients 
 fail. The mere inertia of the majority 
 saves the phantom government, and, in spite 
 of its incapacity and weakness, the efforts 
 of its enemies do not prevail against it. But 
 let this liberator, impatiently awaited, sud- 
 denly give a sign of his existence, the 
 national instinct at once divines him and 
 
 [49] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 calls him. Obstacles vanish before him, and 
 the whole nation, as by a common impulse, 
 following in his train seems to say : There 
 is the man ! 
 
 If obedience is the result of the instinct of 
 the masses, revolt is the result of their 
 thought. 
 
 The people are capable of good judgment 
 when they do not listen to demagogues. 
 Ranters never help matters any, and always 
 make them worse. 
 
 In revolutions there are only two sorts of 
 men, those who cause them and those who 
 profit by them. 
 
 Thrones are never repaired. 
 
 A revolution is an opinion which utilizes 
 bayonets. 
 
 Some revolutions are inevitable. There 
 are moral eruptions, just as the outbreak of 
 volcanoes are physical eruptions. When the 
 chemical combinations which produce them 
 
 [50] 
 
Things Political 
 
 are complete, the volcanic eruptions burst 
 forth, just as revolutions do when the moral 
 factors are in the right state. In order to 
 foresee them the trend of ideas must be 
 understandingly observed. 
 
 A revolution is a vicious circle it is 
 caused by excesses and it brings them. 
 
 Young men accomplish revolutions which 
 older men have prepared. 
 
 Once committed to a course, a people is 
 riot to be stopped. 
 
 There is room for neither passion nor 
 prejudice in public affairs; the only permis- 
 sible passion is that for the public welfare. 
 
 Charles the First perished because he 
 resisted, Louis xvi because he did not. 
 Neither comprehended the strength of inertia 
 which is the secret of great reigns. 
 
 In statesmanship there are predicaments 
 from which it is impossible to escape with- 
 out some wrongdoing. 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 One can lead a nation only by helping it 
 see a bright outlook. A leader is a dealer 
 in hope. 
 
 It is rare that a legislature reasons. It 
 is too quickly impassioned. 
 
 Large legislative bodies resolve them- 
 selves into coteries, and coteries into jeal- 
 ousies. 
 
 Nations must be saved in spite of them- 
 selves. 
 
 Parties weaken themselves by their fear 
 of capable men. 
 
 A political faction never tolerates a 
 permanent leader. It needs one for each 
 passion. 
 
 During the Revolution the French were 
 never without a king. 
 
 The hereditary character of orders of 
 nobility deprives both noble and commoner 
 of the spirit of emulation. 
 
 [52] 
 
Things Political 
 
 Necessity can be overcome only by abso- 
 lute power. 
 
 A revolution is effected when it is only 
 necessary to get rid of one man. 
 
 Absolute power represses ambitions and 
 makes selection ; democracy unchains all 
 without examination. 
 
 A usurper has had too many masters not 
 to begin by being arbitrary. 
 
 Nothing should resemble a man less than 
 a king. 
 
 ( /I will be the Brutus of kings and the 
 Caesar of the republic. 
 
 Discipline is permanent only as it is ap- 
 propriate to the character of the nation. 
 
 Never have national assemblies combined 
 prudence and energy, wisdom and vigor. 
 
 Under a system of absolute government, 
 only one will is necessary to destroy an 
 
 [53] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 abuse; under a representative system, five 
 hundred are necessary. 
 
 The people never choose real legislators. 
 
 In spite of all their horrors, revolutions 
 are nevertheless the true cause of regener- 
 ation in public customs. 
 
 Democracy may become frenzied, but it 
 has feelings and can be moved. As for aris- 
 tocracy, it is always cold and never forgives. 
 
 I have a very poor opinion of a govern- 
 ment which lacks the power to interdict the 
 things that are capable of causing friction 
 with foreign governments. 
 
 I espouse no party but the masses. My 
 policy is to complete the fusion of the whole 
 people. 
 
 The institution of a national nobility is 
 not contrary to equality. It is necessary to 
 maintain the social order. No social order 
 has ever been established on agrarian laws. 
 The principle of private property and of 
 
 [54] 
 
Things Political 
 
 transmission by contract of sale, by gift 
 during life, or by will, is a fundamental 
 principle which does not detract from equal- 
 ity. From this principle is derived the cus- 
 tom of transmitting from father to son the 
 remembrance of services rendered to the 
 state. Fortunes are sometimes acquired by 
 means shameful or criminal. Titles acquired 
 by services to the state rise from a pure and 
 honorable source. Their transmission to 
 posterity is only simple justice (See Note 
 3). 
 
 I must govern all without regard to what 
 each has done. They have rallied to me to 
 enjoy security. They would abandon me 
 tomorrow if matters became problematical. 
 
 The laws of most countries are made to 
 oppress the unfortunate and to protect the 
 powerful. 
 
 We frustrate many designs against us by 
 pretending not to see them. 
 
 Those who avenge on principle are fero- 
 cious and implacable, 
 
 [55] 
 
Napoleon in His O<wn Words 
 
 The name and the power of government 
 signify nothing, provided citizens are equal 
 in their rights, and that justice is well ad- 
 ministered. 
 
 There are only two classes in Europe, 
 those who want privileges, and those who 
 spurn them. 
 
 The man the least free is the man bound 
 to party. 
 
 Nothing goes well in a political system 
 where words play with things. 
 
 Social law is able to give all men the same 
 rights, though nature will never give them 
 equal abilities. 
 
 Prosperity is the best tie between prince 
 and people. 
 
 Government ought to be a continuous 
 demonstration. 
 
 The susceptibility of a government is its 
 own accusation of weakness. 
 
 [56] 
 
Things Political 
 
 All governments ought to see men only 
 in mass. 
 
 It is the unity of interests which makes 
 the strength of governments. 
 
 Absolute power must be essentially pater- 
 nal ; otherwise it will be overthrown. 
 
 Every man who is worth thirty millions 
 and is not wedded to them, is dangerous to 
 the government. 
 
 In the last analysis there must be a mili- 
 tary quality in government. One governs 
 a horse only with boots and spurs. 
 
 The foundation of all authority is in the 
 advantage of those who obey. 
 
 The wars of the Revolution have en- 
 nobled the entire French nation. 
 
 Appealing to foreigners is a criminal act. 
 
 A party which sustains itself only by 
 foreign bayonets is vanquished. 
 
 [57] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 The old nobility would have continued to 
 exist if it had not been more concerned with 
 branches than with roots. 
 
 Out of a hundred favorites of kings, 
 ninety-five have been hanged. 
 
 The court, taken collectively, exercises no 
 direct influence on the tone and the man- 
 ners of a nation. It affects these only 
 because its elements, those who compose it, 
 spread, each in his own sphere of activity, 
 that which they have drawn from the 
 common source. The tone of the court, 
 therefore, affects the whole nation only by 
 spreading through the various ranks of so- 
 ciety. 
 
 It is a great mistake of the court not to 
 give itself leadership. 
 
 The old nobility would have survived if 
 it had known enough to become master of 
 writing materials. 
 
 A prince who is afraid is liable to be 
 overthrown at any moment. 
 [58] 
 
Things Political 
 
 To listen to the interests of all, marks an 
 ordinary government; to foresee them, 
 marks a great government. 
 
 A sovereign ought to occupy himself with 
 seeking the good that is in the bad, and 
 conversely. 
 
 A government can live only in accordance 
 with its own principles. 
 
 The wisdom of the chief of the state is 
 to foresee events. At the very moment 
 when he is the most beneficent he is accused 
 of tyranny. 
 
 It is not necessary that the chief of the 
 ^fate should be the chief of a party. 
 
 The eminence of sovereigns depends on 
 that of their peoples. 
 
 A great monarch is the one who foresees 
 results at all times. 
 
 Palace troops are dangerous in proportion 
 as the sovereign is absolute. 
 
 [59] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 It is good policy to make a people believe 
 they are free. It is good government to 
 make them as happy as they wish to be. 
 
 The chief of state ought no more to 
 abandon the government of ideas than the 
 government of men. 
 
 The expression " political virtue/' is non- 
 sense. 
 
 Peace is the first of needs, as it is the 
 first of glories. 
 
 Peace ought to be the result of a system 
 well considered, founded on the true inter- 
 ests of the different countries, honorable to 
 each, and ought not to be either a capitula- 
 tion or the result of a threat. 
 
 A sovereign who attaches himself to a 
 faction unsteadies his bark and hastens 
 shipwreck. 
 
 The chief of state must cooperate even 
 with the bad for the triumph of public af- 
 fairs. 
 
 [60] 
 
Things Political 
 
 A sovereign ought not to rely either on 
 word or look. 
 
 The conspirators who unite to shake off 
 a tyranny, commence by submitting to that 
 of a chief. 
 
 Imagination has done more harm than 
 facts. It is the capital enemy of monarchs. 
 
 Honors are, for a sovereign, a moral 
 treasury. 
 
 It is by wounding the self-love of princes 
 that we influence their deliberations. 
 
 A material conspiracy is ended the mo- 
 ment we seize the hand which holds the 
 dagger; a moral conspiracy never ends. 
 
 A state is better off with ministers of 
 moderate ability who continue in office, than 
 with able ones when changes are frequent. 
 
 Indecision in fundamental things is to 
 government what paralysis is to the move- 
 ments of the limbs. 
 
 [61] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 Etiquette is the prison of kings. 
 
 Public opinion is a mysterious, invisible 
 power, which nothing can resist. Nothing 
 is more changeable, more intangible, or 
 stronger. And yet, capricious as it is, it is, 
 nevertheless, right, reasonable, and just, 
 much oftener than we are disposed to think 
 it is. 
 
 It is seldom that men of moderate ability, 
 when in authority, have honest purposes; 
 they always make a mess of things. 
 
 Emergency legislation is itself an indict- 
 ment of the power that enacts it. 
 
 One can escape the arbitrariness of judges 
 only by placing one's self under the despot- 
 ism of law. 
 
 The most deceptive policy is playing one 
 faction against another, and flattering your- 
 self that you dominate both. 
 
 In my present situation (1814), I find 
 nobility only in the rabble which I have 
 
 [62] 
 
Things Political 
 
 neglected, and rabble only in the nobility I 
 have created. 
 
 L Compromises weaken power. 
 
 In all public acts there should be strength, 
 ^perseverance, and singleness. 
 
 When, among a people, all want place, 
 one finds himself sold out in advance. 
 
 The advent of cannon killed the feudal 
 system; ink will kill the modern social or- 
 ganization. 
 
 I will respect the conclusions of public 
 opinion when they are legitimate ; but public 
 opinion has caprices one must scorn. 
 
 In a government, it is not the inconse- 
 quential who need watching, it is the strong. 
 It is to the latter that it is necessary to 
 direct constant attention. Loosen the rein 
 on the great and at once they encroach on 
 the sovereign. Why occupy one's self so 
 muh with the rich? The rich have all the 
 advantages that organized society gives. 
 
 [63] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 Their very wealth protects them far too 
 well. The strength, the future of a gov- 
 ernment, the power of a throne, are in the 
 common people, and the dangers which 
 menace it are in the strong. Sovereigns, 
 protect the common people if you wish that 
 in their turn they should protect you. 
 
 Absolute power has no need to lie; it 
 acts, and says nothing. A responsible gov- 
 ernment is, always obliged to speak, and is 
 led into ignoble lies. In a short time it 
 becomes discredited and falls, scorned. 
 Absolute power at least falls hated. 
 
 Political laws compared with those of 
 humanity have brief duration. They grow 
 out of conditions and manners, and as con- 
 ditions and manners change, they change 
 with them. 
 
 I have sown liberty with a bountiful 
 hand wherever I have established my Civil 
 Code (See Note 4). 
 
 In all civilized countries, mere strength 
 yields to civil requirements. Bayonets bow 
 
Things Political 
 
 down before the priest who speaks in the 
 name of heaven, and before the man who 
 inspires respect by his knowledge. 
 
 There are more chances of securing a 
 good sovereign by heredity than by election. 
 
 Such is the inevitable trend of these nu- 
 merous bodies (the Chambers) ; they perish 
 for lack of harmony. Leaders are as neces- 
 sary to them as to armies. In the latter 
 they are appointed. But men of great talent, 
 the superior geniuses, make themselves 
 masters of assemblies and of governments. 
 
 The Revolution ought to teach that noth- 
 ing is foreseen. 
 
 The great powers suffer from indigestion. 
 
 A king must not allow himself to be 
 crushed by misfortune. 
 
V 
 
 CONCERNING THE FINE ARTS 
 
 I LOOK on scholars and wits as I do on 
 coquettes. It is all right to call on either, 
 to chat with them, but not to take a coquette 
 for a wife, or the others for ministers. 
 
 Great writers are but esteemed drivelers. 
 
 A stupid is only a bore; a pedant is un- 
 bearable. 
 
 If the French language has become a 
 universal language, it is to the genius of 
 men of letters that we owe it. 
 
 The French language is the most culti- 
 vated modern language, and it is not neces- 
 sary to go to any other for inscriptions for 
 monuments. 
 
 The French language is not a perfect 
 language. It lacks many words. It im- 
 [66] 
 
Concerning the Fine Arts 
 
 perfectly expresses a crowd of things a 
 sound impression, a great thought. It is 
 rather the language of wit than of genius. 
 
 The classics are written by rhetoricians, 
 while they ought to be written only by 
 statesmen, or men of the world. 
 
 A book in which there were no lies would 
 be a curiosity. 
 
 Books are too argumentative not to cor- 
 rupt a nation by dishabituating it from fact. 
 
 The only encouragement for poets are 
 the places in the Institute, because these 
 give to them a standing in the nation. 
 
 The art of the sovereign, like that of the 
 minister, is to give refulgence to good 
 works. 
 
 There ought to be power to give pensions 
 to men of letters. To those who are in need, 
 the Minister of Interior gives 200,000 francs 
 per annum, by way of relief. It is a dis- 
 agreeable form of disbursing it, and has 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 nothing in keeping with the national source 
 from which it comes. It is charity. 
 
 All men of genius, and all those who 
 have gained rank in the republic of letters, 
 are brothers, whatever may be the land of 
 their nativity. 
 
 Newspapers are not history, any more 
 than bulletins are. 
 
 Historians too often make history un- 
 intelligible by their ignorance, or by their 
 laziness. When they do not understand, or 
 do not know, they draw on their imagina- 
 tion, instead of making researches which 
 would lead them to the truth. 
 
 History, as I take it, ought to present 
 individuals or peoples just as they have 
 shown themselves to be at the height of 
 their accomplishment. Account must be 
 taken of the external circumstances, which 
 must necessarily exert a great influence on 
 their actions ; and a clear view must be had 
 of the limits within which this influence 
 was exercised. The Roman Emperors 
 [68] 
 
Concerning the Fine Arts 
 
 were not as bad as Tacitus painted them. 
 Moreover, I much prefer Montesquieu to 
 Tacitus. He is juster, and his criticism is 
 more conformable to truth. 
 
 It must be recognized that the real truths 
 of history are hard to discover. Happily, 
 for the most part, they are rather matters 
 of curiosity than of real importance. There 
 are so many verities ! This historical verity 
 so much appealed to, which each zealously 
 invokes, is too often only a word. Truth 
 is impossible at the moment of events, in 
 the heat of aroused passions; if, later, ac- 
 cord is restored, only those interested re- 
 main; there are none to controvert. But 
 what really is this historical verity in most 
 cases? a lie agreed on, as some one has 
 very wittily said. In every matter there 
 are two very distinct elements the actual 
 facts, and the motives behind them. The 
 actual facts, it would seem, ought to be 
 incontrovertible; and yet, there are some 
 which remain eternally in dispute. As to 
 motives, what are the means of discovering 
 them, even assuming the good faith of the 
 narrators? And what will they be if the 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 narrators are actuated by bad faith, by in- 
 terest and passion ? I have given an order, 
 but who is able to read my innermost 
 thought, my real intention? Yet, neverthe- 
 less, each will take this order, measure it 
 with his own yardstick, adjust it to his own 
 theories, his individual beliefs. And each 
 will hold firmly to what he relates. And 
 the lesser writers who take it from these 
 privileged lips will be as sure of it in their 
 turn ! And then the memoirs and the diaries 
 and the drawing-room anecdotes and witty 
 speeches which follow in their train! That 
 nevertheless is history. 
 
 Little love scenes in tragedy are banal; 
 our age is advancing, and everything must 
 advance with it. 
 
 History proves that detraction falls 
 quickly into contempt. If detractors could 
 only look through the mass of rubbish 
 there is in the National Library that 
 has been written against Henry iv and 
 Louis xiv, they would be humiliated by 
 their impotence; they have not left an im- 
 pression. 
 
 [70] 
 
Concerning the Fine Arts 
 
 Verse is only the embroidery of the 
 dramatic fabric. 
 
 A good tragedy always grows better every- 
 day. High tragedy is the school of great 
 men. It is the duty of sovereigns to encour- 
 age and promote it. It is not necessary to be 
 a poet to judge it. It is sufficient to know 
 men and things, to have elevation of mind, 
 a statesmanlike outlook. 
 
 France owes to Corneille some of her 
 finest achievements. If he were alive, I 
 would make him a prince. 
 
 I love high tragedy ; the sublime, like that 
 of Corneille. In tragedy great men are 
 more truly great than in history. We see 
 them only in the crises which unfold them, 
 in the moments of supreme decision; and 
 we are not burdened with all the preparatory 
 details and conjectures, often false, which 
 the historian gives us. There is equal gain 
 for glory, for there is enough weakness, un- 
 certainty, and doubt in men ; but there ought 
 to be none in heroes. Tragedy should be 
 an heroic statue in which nothing of the 
 
 [71] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 weakness or quivering of the flesh is seen. It 
 should be the " Perseus " of Benvenuto 
 Cellini, that group sublime and true which 
 owes its very existence (though its appear- 
 ance gives no hint of it) to the pewter plates 
 and dishes which the artist in the fury of 
 desperation flung into his seething crucible 
 to give his bronze the fit quality for his 
 masterpiece. 
 
 I am thankful that tragedy has thus mag- 
 nified some men, or rather has given them 
 the true stature of superior men in a mortal 
 body. I have often wished that our poets 
 had been able to do that for our modern 
 heroes. And why not? Genius has not grown 
 less since the time of Caesar. But our poets 
 have known nothing of modern genius, not 
 more of Henry iv than of Philip the Fair 
 (See Note 5). 
 
 Tragedy should be the school of kings 
 and of nations. It forms the highest pin- 
 nacle to which poets can attain. 
 
 Melodramas are the tragedies of cham- 
 bermaids. 
 
 [72] 
 
Concerning the Fine Arts 
 
 In the Agamemnon of Aeschylus, what I 
 admire is the great strength joined to great 
 simplicity which is exhibited. I am struck, 
 more than by anything else, by the grada- 
 tions of terror which characterize the pro- 
 ductions of this father of tragedy. And 
 there is there, moreover, the first spark 
 from which has been kindled our beautiful 
 modern flame. 
 
 It is not fair to paint everything black, 
 as Tacitus does. He has not sufficiently 
 sought out the causes, and the interior 
 springs, of events; he has not sufficiently 
 studied the mystery of facts and of mo- 
 tives. He has not sufficiently sought for 
 and scrutinized their interplay, to transmit 
 a just and impartial judgment to posterity. 
 
 Dante is to me the greatest genius of 
 modern times. Dante is a sun who shines 
 in all his brilliancy in the midst of profound 
 night. Everything in him is extraordinary. 
 His originality, especially, assigns to him a 
 rank apart. Ariosto has imitated the ro- 
 mance of chivalry, and the poems of the 
 ancients. Tasso has done the same thing. 
 
 [73] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 Dante has not deigned to take his inspira- 
 tion from any other. He has wished to be 
 himself, himself alone; in a word, to create. 
 He has occupied a vast space, and has filled 
 it with the superiority of a sublime mind. 
 He is diverse, strong, and gracious. He 
 has imagination, warmth, and enthusiasm. 
 He makes his reader tremble, shed tears, 
 feel the thrill of honor in a way that is the 
 height of art. Severe and menacing, he has 
 terrible imprecations for crime, scourgings 
 for vice, sorrow for misfortune. As a citi- 
 zen, affected by the laws of the republic, he 
 thunders against its oppressors, but he is 
 always ready to excuse his native city, 
 Florence is ever to him his sweet, beloved 
 country, dear to his heart. I am envious 
 for my dear France, that she has never pro- 
 duced a rival to Dante; that this Colossus 
 has not had his equal among us. No, there 
 is no reputation which can be compared 
 to his. 
 
 It is astonishing how poorly Voltaire 
 bears reading (See Note 6). When the 
 pomp and diction, the influence of the situa- 
 tion, no longer mislead analysis or good 
 
 [74] 
 
Concerning the Fine Arts 
 
 taste, then he loses a thousand per cent at 
 once. 
 
 Homer was the encyclopedist of his epoch 
 (See Note 7). 
 
 A prelate like Fenelon (See Note 8), is 
 the finest gift heaven can bestow on a great 
 city, and a government. 
 
 I disapprove of giving La Fontaine to 
 children not old enough to understand him 
 (See Note 9). There is too much irony in 
 the fable of the wolf and the lamb to bring 
 it within the reach of children. It errs, 
 moreover, to my mind in its purpose and 
 its trend. It is not true that the right of 
 the stronger is the better. And if it seems 
 to be, that is the wrong, the abuse, that 
 ought to be condemned. The wolf, there- 
 fore, ought to have choked himself in eating 
 the lamb. 
 
 Well done as Racine's (See Note 10) 
 masterpieces are in themselves, he has, nev- 
 ertheless, flavored them with a perpetual 
 gallantry, an eternal love, with his tone of 
 
 [75] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 insipid sweetness, his tiresome surround- 
 ings. But still it is not wholly his fault; 
 it was the vice and the manners of his time. 
 Love then, and later still, was the principal 
 affair of life with everyone. It always is 
 in the idle strata of society. As for us, we 
 in our generation have been rudely dis- 
 tracted from it by the Revolution and its 
 stirring effects. 
 
 Without question, Tar tuff e (See Note n) 
 in its entirety, is from a master hand. It is 
 the masterpiece of an inimitable man. Nev- 
 ertheless, this play is of such a character 
 that for my part I do not hesitate to say 
 that if it had been written in my time I 
 would not have permitted it to be presented. 
 
 Gil Bias is witty (See Note 12), but he 
 deserved the galleys, he and all of his. 
 
 The Genius of Christianity, by De Cha- 
 teaubriand (See Note 13), is a work of lead 
 and gold, but the gold predominates. 
 
 La Harpe (See Note 14) was a man 
 without genius, without imagination, freez- 
 
 [76] 
 
Concerning the Fine Arts 
 
 ingly cold to his neighbors. He was later a 
 rabid devotee without being more sincere. 
 He conspired against the state through 
 pride. 
 
 Everything that is great and national in 
 character ought to acknowledge the genius 
 of De Chateaubriand. 
 
 I read a few chapters of Madame de 
 Stael's (See Note 15) Corinne, but I 
 couldn't finish it. Madame de Stael has 
 drawn herself so well in her heroine, that 
 she has succeeded in making me cordially 
 hate her. I see her, I hear her, I feel her, 
 I want to get away from her, and I throw 
 down the book. 
 
 The home of Madame de Stael at Coppet 
 became a veritable arsenal against me. 
 Thither came many to be armed as knights 
 against me. She occupied herself in stir- 
 ring up enemies against me, and fought me 
 herself. She was at the same time Armide 
 and Clorinde (See Note 16). And yet, 
 after all, it is only true to say that no one 
 can deny that Madame de Stael is a woman 
 
 [773 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 of very great talent, greatly distinguished, 
 and of much strength of character. She 
 will endure. 
 
 Beaumarchais (See Note 17) was a man 
 without morals, without principle, a dealer 
 in literature, rather than a man of letters; 
 aspiring to fortune and finding every means 
 good by which he could reach it; endowed 
 with a keen mind, observant, mocking, and 
 satirical; carrying audacity to effrontery; 
 insolent with the great, eating from their 
 hand; armored against all infamies, and 
 sacrificing everything to his insatiable de- 
 sire to be the most talked of man in Paris. 
 Under my reign such a man would have 
 been locked up as a madman. It would 
 have been called arbitrary, but what a serv- 
 ice it would have been to society. 
 
 The Theatre Frangaise (See Note 18) 
 ought to be supported because it is a part 
 of the national glory. But it ought to re- 
 duce the price of seats in the parquette, to 
 twenty sous on Sunday, in order that the 
 people may be able to enjoy it. We do not 
 have to do things always just as they have 
 
 [78] 
 
Concerning the Fine Arts 
 
 been done in the past, as if it were impos- 
 sible to do better. 
 
 The division of labor, which has brought 
 such perfection in mechanical industries, is 
 altogether fatal when applied to productions 
 of the mind. All work of the mind is 
 superior in proportion as the mind that 
 produces it is universal. 
 
 It is scarcely to be believed, yet at the 
 time of the Revolution Voltaire had de- 
 throned Corneille and Racine. We were 
 asleep to the beauties of these; it was the 
 First Consul who brought about the awak- 
 ening. 
 
 You can't do anything with a philosopher. 
 
 It has been the desire of my heart to 
 see the artists of France surpass the glory 
 of Athens and of Italy. 
 
 The Arcs de Triomphe would be futile 
 work, serving no purpose, and I would not 
 have built them if I had not thought them 
 a means of encouraging architecture. I 
 
 [79] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 hoped with the Arcs de Triomphe to nourish 
 the architecture of France for twenty years. 
 
 In science the world of details is yet to 
 be discovered. 
 
 Opera costs the government eight hun- 
 dred thousand francs a year; it is necessary 
 to sustain an establishment which flatters 
 the national vanity. Grand Opera alone 
 should be permitted to produce ballets. 
 
 Why did not the Revolution, w r hich de- 
 stroyed so much, demolish the Chateau 
 of Versailles? I would not have a fort of 
 Louis xiv on my hands, and to tolerate an 
 old, badly built chateau, is to make of it, 
 as one has said, " a favorite without merit " 
 (See Note 19). 
 
VI 
 
 ADMINISTRATION 
 
 THERE ought to be authority to give 
 pensions to men who have rendered 
 service as civil functionaries, such as pre- 
 fects, superior judges, counsellors of state, 
 and to their widows. When there is no 
 future for public functionaries, they abuse 
 their places. The Directory, unable to give 
 pensions, gave a pecuniary interest in official 
 business, something very reprehensible. 
 
 A French functionary ought to excite 
 envy always, never pity. 
 
 More character is required in adminis- 
 tration than in war. 
 
 The thing is, not to select the man whom 
 the place fits, but the man who fits the place. 
 
 Great functionaries, however economical 
 and even parsimonious they may be in their 
 [81] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 private life, should be generous and free- 
 handed in their public life. 
 
 The emoluments of public employes ought 
 to be such as to permit a style of living cor- 
 responding to the importance of their func- 
 tions. The French ought to maintain in 
 everything an attitude befitting the repre- 
 sentatives of the greatest nation in the 
 world. 
 
 Laws which are consistent in theory often 
 prove chaotic in practice. 
 
 In practical administration, experience is 
 everything. 
 
 The prefects (See Note 20), with all the 
 authority and the local resources with which 
 they found themselves invested, were em- 
 perors on a small scale. And as their whole 
 power came from the appointing power, of 
 which they were but the instruments, as all 
 the influence they had arose from their im- 
 mediate employment, and none of it from 
 their own individuality, and as they owned 
 none of the soil they ruled, they had all the 
 
Administration 
 
 advantages of the old despotic functionaries, 
 without any of their disadvantages. It had 
 been absolutely necessary to give this ex- 
 tensive power. I found myself dictator; 
 circumstances had willed it thus. It was 
 therefore necessary that the system center- 
 ing in me, should be in perfect harmony 
 with my will; otherwise there was danger 
 of it breaking down. The governmental 
 network with which I covered the country, 
 necessitated keen tension, and perfect elas- 
 ticity, if we were to repel promptly and 
 effectively the terrific blows constantly aimed 
 at us. 
 
 There must of necessity be some inter- 
 mediary means between the people and the 
 executive power, otherwise nothing will be 
 accomplished. 
 
 There is too much centralization of 
 power in France. I wish there were less 
 authority in Paris, and more in each local- 
 ity. 
 
 Without system and method, administra- 
 tion becomes chaos, and there is neither 
 
 [83] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 public finances nor public credit ; and private 
 fortunes collapse with the collapse of the 
 state. 
 
 France abounds in practical, capable men ; 
 the thing is to find them, and to give 
 them the means of proving themselves. 
 There are men at the plow who ought to be 
 in the Council of State; and ministers of 
 state who ought to be at the plow. 
 
 I wish there were a teaching body which 
 should be a nursery of teachers, school prin- 
 cipals, and schoolmasters, and would arouse 
 in them a splendid spirit of emulation. 
 Young men who devote themselves to teach- 
 ing ought to have the prospect of rising 
 from one grade to another to the highest 
 places in the state. The feet of this great 
 teaching body should be in the schools, and 
 its head in the Senate. But the principle 
 of celibacy is necessary, to this extent, that 
 schoolmasters ought not to be allowed to 
 marry until they are twenty-five or thirty 
 years of age, and have reached a salary of 
 three or four thousand francs a year, and 
 have made sufficient economies. This is, 
 
Administration 
 
 after all, only the application of the cus- 
 tomary foresight as to marriage in all ranks 
 of society. 
 
 I am conscious that in the matter of the 
 instruction of youth, the Jesuits have left 
 a very great void. I have no wish to re- 
 establish them, or any other body subject 
 to alien control. But I do believe myself 
 under obligations to organize a system of 
 education for the rising generation in such 
 a way that oversight of its political and 
 moral opinions may be secured. 
 
 I believe also that it is wise in this organ- 
 ization to require celibacy up to a certain 
 age; not absolute celibacy, for, without con- 
 tradiction, marriage is the perfect social 
 state. 
 
 This teaching body should be so consti- 
 tuted that records will be kept of each child 
 above nine years of age. 
 
 The Frenchman is so inclined to be in- 
 fatuated with the foreigner that it is, per- 
 haps, not necessary to teach pupils foreign 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 languages. One of the obstacles to the re- 
 establishment of our marine is the high 
 opinion that our sailors have of the supe- 
 , riority of the English. It was Prusso-mania 
 which lost the battle of Rossbach (See Note 
 
 21). 
 
 There will never be a fixed policy of state 
 until there is a teaching body with fixed 
 principles. As long as no one is taught from 
 childhood that it is necessary to be a re- 
 publican or a monarchist, Catholic or with- 
 out religion, the state will never form a 
 nation. It will rest on uncertain and un- 
 stable foundations. It will be constantly 
 subject to disorders and changes. 
 
 It is affirmed that the schools maintained 
 by the lay Brothers are likely to introduce 
 in the University a dangerous element, and 
 it is proposed to exclude them from its jur- 
 isdiction. I cannot understand the species 
 of fanaticism w r ith which some persons are 
 animated against the lay Brothers. It is 
 purely a prejudice. Moreover, those who 
 propose to leave the Brothers outside the 
 University do not realize that they are going 
 [86] 
 
Administration 
 
 counter to their own purposes. It is by 
 including them in the University that they 
 will become a part of the civil order, and 
 the danger of their independence will be 
 forestalled. They will not be dangerous 
 when they no longer have a foreign or an 
 unknown head (See Note 22). 
 
 There is no necessity for granting too 
 easily the degree of Doctor of the Univer- 
 sity. The postulant ought to be examined 
 on matters more difficult; for example, on 
 the comparison of languages. There would 
 be nothing out of the way in requiring a 
 candidate to speak in Latin for an hour and 
 a half. It is not necessary that everybody 
 should become a doctor. 
 
 I have never intended that professors 
 should undertake the establishment of col- 
 leges on their own account. That would be 
 ridiculous. On the other hand, I have never 
 wanted their stipends to be fixed indepen- 
 dently of the number of students. I have 
 believed their stipends should be in propor- 
 tion to the increase in the number of stu- 
 dents, so that they would have an interest 
 
 [87] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 in the success of these establishments. 
 Moreover, it is not possible to have a uni- 
 form scale of stipends. They must be 
 graded according to locality and merit. 
 
 There are some changes to be made in 
 the authority regarding publications which 
 it is proposed to give the University. It is 
 not necessary that it should arrogate any 
 power to itself to repress works which are 
 published by others. Its rights should be 
 limited to replying to them, to putting them 
 on the expurgatory index of the University, 
 and to punishing professors who avail 
 themselves of such works in their teaching. 
 These means will be sufficient to prevent 
 youth from being carried away by the thou- 
 sand jarring errors that assail them, or 
 being drawn into scientific or literary her- 
 esies. 
 
 The religious orders would be the best 
 teaching bodies if they could renounce their 
 allegiance to a foreign head. 
 
 The project of a school of arts and crafts 
 for the children of soldiers and sailors, has 
 [88] 
 
Administration 
 
 been considered for the purpose of giving 
 them an education suitable to their station. 
 It may be said that it would be better to 
 apprentice them to masters. But that would 
 answer only for a year or two, and would 
 fail very soon. There is, moreover, a po- 
 litical purpose. It is important. There 
 should be a bringing together of all classes, 
 and in a national spirit. We have already 
 followed this system for the middle classes. 
 The Lycees (See Note 23) should supply 
 lawyers, doctors, and educated soldiers. In 
 order to extend this to the lower classes 
 two other schools should be established, and 
 in them should be placed the children of 
 the newly annexed departments in order 
 that they may be taught French. It is from 
 among these that we will one day take the 
 workmen for our ports for our military 
 workshops and for our colonies. 
 
 The law looks on the Commissioners of 
 War as civil agents only, while more cour- 
 age and military skill are required of them 
 than even of military officers. The courage 
 required is essentially moral. It is never 
 the result of anything but association with 
 
 [89] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 danger. . . . One is revolted in hearing 
 daily individuals of different bureaus ad- 
 mit, and even almost glory in, having had 
 fear. 
 
 Our system of finance should consist in 
 the creation of a great number of indirect 
 contributions, of which the very moderate 
 rate would be capable of being increased to 
 the measure of need. 
 
 It seems that the price of stocks, in Paris, 
 is everybody's business except that of the 
 real owners. The so-called buyers and 
 sellers do nothing, in fact, but make bets 
 with one another that such will be at 
 such a time the state of the market. Each 
 of them, in order to make a living, tries to 
 direct the policies of the whole of Europe 
 toward the end he desires. Each invents, 
 comments on, or misrepresents the facts, 
 penetrates the councils and the cabinets of 
 ministers, the secrets of courts; makes am- 
 bassadors speak; decides peace and war; 
 stirs up and misleads opinion, always so avid 
 of novelties and of errors, especially in 
 France, that the more one misleads it the 
 
 [90] 
 
Administration 
 
 more empire he has over it. And this scan- 
 dalous influence is not alone exercised by 
 that crowd of adventurers called stock-job- 
 bers. The stock-brokers themselves, to 
 whom all personal speculation is interdicted 
 by the nature of their business, take advan- 
 tage of their position and buy and sell on 
 their own account. Often they become op- 
 posed in interest to those, even, whom they 
 call their clients. Public morals alone would 
 require the suppression of this abuse, and 
 still other motives join with this. The 
 rights of liberty end where abuses com- 
 mence. 
 
 I do not want to have the appearance of 
 presenting a law for the reestablishment of 
 the salt tax (See Note 24). It is not that 
 I would fear to reestablish it if I thought it 
 useful to the nation; but if I did, I would 
 do it openly and above board. I am some- 
 times a fox, but I know how to be a lion. 
 
 Commerce is only possible by reason of 
 confidence. There can be no confidence un- 
 der a feeble government. There is no 
 confidence in a country rent by factions. 
 
 [91] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 Commerce is an honorable calling, but its 
 essential base must be prudence and econ- 
 omy. The merchant must not gain his for- 
 tune as one gains a battle; he should make 
 little, but constantly. 
 
 I want to do what is best for my people, 
 and I will not be deterred by the murmurs 
 of the taxpayers. France needs large rev- 
 enues. They will be secured. I want to 
 establish and systematize for my successors 
 such resources as will supply them with the 
 extraordinary means which I have been able 
 to create. 
 
 Why is there no public spirit in France? 
 It is because the land owner is obliged to 
 make his court to the administration. If 
 he is not in its favor, he can be ruined. 
 Decisions in land title cases are arbitrary. 
 It is from this that in no other nation is 
 there such servile attachment to the govern- 
 ment as in France, because only there is title 
 to land dependent on the government. 
 Nothing has ever been done for land titles 
 in France. Whoever shall frame a good 
 registration law will merit a statue. 
 [92] 
 
Administration 
 
 Finances founded on good agriculture 
 will never be ruined. 
 
 I would find it very useful to be able to 
 refer to the Council of State the abuses 
 committed by the prefects. The fear of 
 this would restrain the few who give me 
 cause of complaint. 
 
 There is no need of any alliance between 
 the Bank and the Treasury. Often a trifling 
 transfer of funds would carry with it secrets 
 of state. 
 
 Courts of Special Instance (Special 
 Courts) cannot be dangerous when the 
 Supreme Court passes on their competency. 
 
 It is easy to determine with precision 
 misdemeanors which will come within the 
 jurisdiction of these courts. I wish they 
 could have jurisdiction in cases of attempts 
 against the police, the crimes of second of- 
 fenders, runaways from the galleys, and 
 also crimes committed by malefactors oper- 
 ating together. Simple individuals, like ju- 
 rors, are intimidated by the sight of a band 
 
 [93] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 of culpables. It has been thought, and 
 rightly, that experienced judges would not 
 be as susceptible to these impressions of 
 fear. That is the true and only reason for 
 establishing these courts of Special Instance. 
 
 Care must be taken not to give the Court 
 of Appeals such powers as will, insensibly, 
 lead it to go into questions of fact. 
 
 Do not imagine that the power to pardon 
 can be exercised with impunity, or that so- 
 ciety will applaud every use of it by the 
 monarch. Society will disapprove when it 
 is extended to felons, to murderers, because 
 then it becomes dangerous to the social 
 order. 
 
 It is in sentences for violation of fiscal 
 regulations, and, more particularly still, in 
 those for political delinquencies, that clem- 
 ency is well placed. In these matters the 
 theory is that it is the sovereign who has 
 been attacked, and therefore there is a cer- 
 tain nobility in pardon. At the first reports 
 of an offense of this kind, the interested 
 public ranges itself on the side of the cul- 
 
 [94] 
 
Administration 
 
 prit, and not on that of the punishing power. 
 If the prince remits the punishment, the 
 people think of him as superior to the 
 offense, and opinion is turned against the 
 offender. If the prince follows the opposite 
 course, he gains the reputation of being 
 hateful, and tyrannical. If he extends par- 
 don in the case of odious crimes, he gains 
 the reputation of being weak or evilly dis- 
 posed. 
 
 Borrowing is the ruin of agricultural na- 
 tions and the life of manufacturing ones. 
 
 The luxuries of the rich give necessaries 
 to the poor. 
 
 In the application of laws it is necessary 
 to take into consideration the non-producers. 
 
 Our system of jurisprudence is a patch- 
 work. It is not based on comprehensive 
 general principles. 
 
 It is a mistake to suppose that the jury 
 system is strongly intrenched in public 
 opinion. 
 
 [95] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 There is nothing requiring that juries 
 shall be selected from the whole body of 
 the population. Why should there be such 
 a hodge-podge, associating men without in- 
 telligence with men of education, to the dis- 
 gust of the latter? 
 
 The police invent more than they find. 
 
 Every indulgence to culprits suggests com- 
 plicity. 
 
 Strong reasons have been urged both for 
 and against the jury system. But there is 
 no dissimulating the fact that a tyrannical 
 government would have much more success 
 with juries than with judges who are less 
 under their control, and who always would 
 oppose to it more resistance; moreover, the 
 bloodiest tribunals have had juries. If they 
 had been composed of magistrates, mere 
 custom and formalities would have been a 
 rampart against unjust and arbitrary con- 
 demnations. The severity which the con- 
 tinual exercise of these functions so fre- 
 quently brings is not greatly to be feared 
 when the procedure is public, and the de- 
 
 [96] 
 
Administration 
 
 fendants are represented by counsel, with 
 the right of argument (See Note 25). 
 
 To interpret the law is to corrupt it; 
 lawyers strangle laws. 
 
 A magistrate ought to have courage equal 
 to all proofs, and, for example, like Presi- 
 dents Harley and Mole (See Note 26), be 
 ready to perish in defending the sovereign, 
 the throne, and the laws. The most glorious 
 death would be that of a soldier on the field 
 of honor, if the death of a magistrate in 
 defense of the sovereign, the throne, and 
 the laws, were not more glorious still. 
 
 One means of reducing litigation by half 
 would be to pay lawyers only when they 
 won their case. But I have never been able 
 to impress this idea on the Council of State. 
 
 Treaties are observed as long as they are 
 in harmony with interests. 
 
 I wish that property in mines, once con- 
 ceded, should become the same as other 
 kinds of property; that contests regarding 
 
 [97] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 it should be submitted to the ordinary 
 courts, and that we entrust the duty of 
 thoroughly working the mines to the interest 
 of the individuals who will come to own 
 them in perpetuity. Fathers will be stim- 
 ulated by the interests of their children. 
 That is the disposition of the human heart. 
 The whole world builds palaces and plants 
 trees for the generations to come. Mine 
 owners would recognize that instead of dig- 
 ging from the surface, it is necessary to 
 drive levels. They will not want to forfeit 
 the advantages of a comprehensive system 
 of future development for a trifling and 
 temporary advantage. 
 
 The national character makes it necessary 
 that the liberty of the press be limited to 
 works of a substantial character. News- 
 papers should be subjected to severe police 
 regulations (See Note 27). 
 
 A people which is able to say everything 
 becomes able to do everything. 
 
 It is conceivable that among a people 
 where public opinion must influence every- 
 
 [98] 
 
Administration 
 
 thing, where it rightfully affects all minis- 
 terial acts, and the deliberations of great 
 state councils, that the press should be ab- 
 solutely free. But our form of government 
 does not call on the people to take part in 
 political affairs. It is the Senate, the Coun- 
 cil of State, and the Corps Legislative which 
 think, which speak, and which act for 
 them. In the English system, public opin- 
 ion controls the government. The press, 
 therefore, ought not to be prevented from 
 criticising ministers, and censuring their 
 acts. The disastrous effects of this are bal- 
 anced by the institutions and the manners 
 of the nation. 
 
 After all, even in England, what benefits 
 result from this license of the press against 
 men in office? Does it reform them? Does 
 it correct their morals? On the contrary, 
 certain to be attacked whatever may be 
 their conduct, the great, acting openly and 
 without scruple, permit the torrent of criti- 
 cism, and become all the more corrupt. 
 
 Newspapers ought to be reduced to hand- 
 bills. 
 
 [99] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 Diplomacy is the police in grand costume. 
 
 Advice to diplomats: In your conversa- 
 tion carefully avoid everything that might 
 offend. Do not utter criticism of any cus- 
 tom, nor write any ridicule. Every people 
 has its own customs, and it is too much the 
 habit of the French to compare everything 
 with their own, and to offer themselves as 
 models. That is a bad step which will hin- 
 der your success by rendering you unbear- 
 able in every society. 
 
 As a woman of the old aristocracy could 
 even give her body to a plebian, and not 
 disclose to him the secrets of the aristocracy, 
 so men accustomed to the usages of good 
 society are alone the only possible ambas- 
 sadors. 
 
 Where treaties are concerned, an ambas- 
 sador should take advantage of everything 
 to work for the benefit of his country. 
 
 I would prefer that French ambassadors 
 should not have any privileges abroad, and 
 that they should be arrested if they did not 
 [100] 
 
Administration 
 
 pay their debts, or if they conspired, rather 
 than give privileges to foreign ambassadors 
 in prance where they are more easily able 
 to conspire, because France is a Republic. 
 The people of France are unsophisticated 
 enough. It is not necessary to increase the 
 importance in their eyes of ambassadors 
 whom they already look on as worth ten 
 times as much as another man. It will be 
 better to say nothing about it. The nation 
 already has too much consideration for for- 
 eigners. 
 
 I do not maintain that the ceremonies of 
 interment should be entirely free to people 
 of small means, for their pride would pre- 
 vent them from asking this favor. But it 
 should be so that those who have this sort 
 of vanity could gratify it cheaply. I also 
 want the cemeteries embellished with chap- 
 els and other customary ornaments. 
 
 I want the Bank of France (See Note 28) 
 to be just enough in the hands of the gov- 
 ernment and not too much. I do not ask 
 that it lend the government money, but that 
 it provide facilities for realizing on its 
 EIOI] 
 
Nafi clean in His Own Words 
 
 revenue cheaply, and at convenient times 
 and places. 
 
 It is a sound principle that commands and 
 garrisons should be changed from time to 
 time. The interest of the state requires that 
 there shall be no irremovable places. The 
 thought of unity should be confined to the 
 unity of the Godhead. 
 
 Among those who have learned their 
 trades by practice, it is not easy to secure 
 simplicity; the formalities of the Council of 
 State prevented much simplification. 
 
 Foreign commerce, infinitely below manu- 
 factures and agriculture in its results, arises 
 out of them, while they do not arise out of 
 it. The interest of these three essential 
 bases of the prosperity of nations are diver- 
 gent, and often opposed to each other. They 
 ought to be aided in the order of their 
 national importance. 
 
 The famous doctrine of laissez faire, lais- 
 ser passer (See Note 29), will prove dan- 
 gerous if accepted in too literal a manner. 
 
 [102] 
 
Administration 
 
 It is necessary to act on this maxim with 
 prudence and discrimination. 
 
 It is by comparison and example that 
 agriculture, like all the other arts, must be 
 perfected. In the departments which are 
 still backward in methods of cultivation, the 
 more well-to-do land owners should be in- 
 duced to send their children to study the 
 methods in use in the departments where 
 agriculture is flourishing; and they can be 
 induced to do so by encomiums and honors. 
 
 I attach a great deal of importance, and 
 a high ideal of glory, to the abolition of 
 mendicancy. 
 
 The emigres (See Note 30) who left 
 France are more interesting than the men 
 of the same class who did not go out, for 
 they had the courage then to make war, and 
 today to make peace. 
 
 I want to take up the subject of Receivers 
 General. They get altogether too much. 
 The Receiver General of Aisne, for example, 
 makes more than a hundred thousand francs 
 
Napoleon in His O<wn Words 
 
 a year. It is scandalous. Half the Receiv- 
 ers General make that much. The other 
 half make from forty to fifty thousand 
 francs a year at the least. 
 
 I seek in vain where to place the limits 
 between the civil and the religious authori- 
 ties. The existence of such limits is a 
 chimera. We ought to avoid any reawaken- 
 ing of the ancient pretensions of the priests 
 by these discussions. It is not that the 
 priests are greatly to be feared. They have 
 lost their empire never to regain it. The 
 day of their superiority in the sciences has 
 passed to the civil order. But they are a 
 body which has permanent privileges. The 
 authorities ought to handle them with cir- 
 cumspection. 
 
 The monks formed the militia of the 
 Pope, and they recognized no other sov- 
 ereign. For the same reason they were 
 more to be feared by the government than 
 the secular clergy. The government is 
 never embroiled except by them. ... I 
 respect that which religion respects, but, as 
 a statesman, I am not able to fall in love 
 [104] 
 
Administration 
 
 with the fanaticism of celibacy. Military 
 fanaticism is the only kind which seems to 
 me good for anything. That in time must 
 be destroyed. My principal purpose in es- 
 tablishing a teaching body is to have a 
 means of directing political and moral opin- 
 ions. This institution will be a guarantee 
 against the reestablishment of the monks. 
 There will be no more talk to me about it. 
 
 A bad law enforced, does more good than 
 a good law emasculated by judicial con- 
 struction. 
 
 Every association is a government within 
 the government. 
 
 It is necessary to govern colonies with 
 force; but there is no real force without 
 justice. 
 
 The colonial system is ended. We must 
 hold firmly to the free navigation of the 
 sea, and to universal freedom of exchange. 
 
 We have given all the whites over to the 
 ferocity of the blacks, and we eveirthink the 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 victims ought not to be dissatisfied! Well, 
 if I had been at Martinique (See Note 31) 
 I would have been for the English, because, 
 before all, one must save his life. I am for 
 the whites because I am white. I have no 
 other reason, and that is a good one. How 
 was it possible to give freedom to Africans, 
 to men who had no civilization, who did 
 not even know what a colony was, what 
 France was? It is very easy to say that 
 those who wanted liberty for the blacks 
 wanted bondage for the whites; but still, 
 does anyone believe that if the majority of 
 the Convention had known what they were 
 doing, and known the colonies, they would 
 have given freedom to the blacks? No, 
 undoubtedly very few persons were in a 
 position to foresee the results, and a senti- 
 ment of humanity always acts powerfully 
 on the imagination. But as a present mat- 
 ter, to cling to these principles still, is not 
 good faith; it is only pride and hypocrisy. 
 
VII 
 
 CONCERNING RELIGION 
 
 THE honest man never doubts the exis- 
 tence of God, for if reason does not 
 suffice to comprehend Him, the instinct of 
 the soul accepts Him. Everything that per- 
 tains to the soul is in sympathy with the 
 religious feeling. 
 
 There are no men who understand them- 
 selves better than soldiers and priests. 
 
 Aristocracy is the spirit of the Old Testa- 
 ment, democracy of the New. 
 
 I am among those who think that the 
 pains of the next world were imagined as 
 a complement to the insufficient attractions 
 that are offered us there. 
 
 The existence of God is attested by every- 
 thing that appeals to our imagination. And 
 if our eye cannot reach Him it is because 
 [107] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 He has not permitted our intelligence to go 
 so far. 
 
 Jesus Christ was the greatest republican. 
 
 The merit of Mahomet is that he founded 
 a religion without an inferno. 
 
 Charity and alms are recommended in 
 every chapter of the Koran as being the 
 most acceptable services, both to God and 
 the Prophet. 
 
 It can be said of priests, as has been said 
 of the tongue, that they are the worst of 
 things or the best. 
 
 The religious zeal which animates priests, 
 leads them to undertake labors and to brave 
 perils which would be far beyond the pow- 
 ers of one in secular employment. 
 
 Conscience is the most sacred thing among 
 men. Every man has within him a still 
 small voice, which tells him that nothing on 
 earth can oblige him to believe that which 
 he does not believe. The worst of all tyran- 
 [108] 
 
Concerning Religion 
 
 nies is that which obliges eighteen-twentieths 
 of a nation to embrace a religion contrary 
 to their beliefs, under penalty of being de- 
 nied their rights as citizens and of owning 
 property, which, in effect, is the same thing 
 as being without a country. 
 
 The executive authority ought to be very 
 careful not to intermeddle too much with 
 the affairs of the clergy and of the priests. 
 It is better to let the courts act, to oppose 
 robe to robe, pride of profession to pride of 
 profession. Judges, like priests, are, in their 
 way, a kind of a body of theologians. They, 
 also, have their maxims, their rules, and 
 their canons. 
 
 Fanaticism must be put to sleep before it 
 can be eradicated. 
 
 The philosophy of the gospel is the phi- 
 losophy of equality, consequently the most 
 favorable to republican government. 
 
 Priests, in the genuine spirit of the gos- 
 pel, ought to contribute to public tranquility 
 by preaching the sound maxims of charity, 
 [109] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 which are at the foundation of religion and 
 of the gospel. 
 
 Fanaticism is always the product of per- 
 secution. 
 
 To enable parish priests to be truly use- 
 ful, and to prevent them from making poor 
 use of their ministry, I wish there were 
 added to the course in theology, a course in 
 agriculture, and in the elements of law, and 
 medicine. 
 
 Policemen and prisons ought never to be 
 the means used to bring men back to the 
 practice of religion. 
 
 You cannot drag a man's conscience be- 
 fore any tribunal, and no one is answerable 
 for his religious opinions to any power on 
 earth. 
 
 There is no place in a fanatic's head 
 where reason can enter. 
 
 Religious quarrels are not different from 
 political quarrels; for, priests, soldiers, or 
 [no] 
 
Concerning Religion 
 
 magistrates, we are all men. These quar- 
 rels end by the intervention of some author- 
 ity strong enough to compel all parties to 
 get together and make up. 
 
 Is it not a fact that the Catholic religion 
 appeals more strongly to the imagination by 
 the pomp of its ceremonies than by the 
 sublimity of its doctrines? When you want 
 to arouse enthusiasm in the masses, it is 
 necessary, above all things, to appeal to their 
 eyes. 
 
 The sovereignty of the people, liberty, 
 and equality, these are the code of the 
 gospel. 
 
 It is contrary to divine right to prevent a 
 man, who needs to work on Sunday the 
 same as other days of the week, from work- 
 ing on Sunday, in order to earn his bread. 
 The government has no right to enact such 
 a law, unless it gives bread gratis to those 
 who have none. For my part, if I under- 
 took to interfere in the matter, I would be 
 more disposed to order that after the hours 
 of service on Sundays, the shops should be 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 opened, and that workmen should take up 
 their work. 
 
 In religion everything ought to be free 
 and for the people. The requirement of 
 paying at the door, or of paying for seats, is 
 something revolting. The poor ought not to 
 be punished simply because they are poor 
 in that which consoles them for their pov- 
 erty. I have never been willing that tickets 
 of admittance to my chapel should be issued. 
 I have always wanted the seats open to the 
 first comers. 
 
 The church ought to be in the state, and 
 not the state in the church. 
 
 One crushes a religious nation, one does 
 not undermine it. 
 
 The populace judges of the power of God 
 by the power of the priests. 
 
 I do not see in religion the mystery of 
 the incarnation so much as the mystery of 
 the social order. It introduces into the 
 thought of heaven an idea of equalization, 
 
 [112] 
 
Concerning Religion 
 
 which saves the rich from being massacred 
 by the poor. 
 
 It is with water, and not with oil, that 
 theological volcanoes are put out. 
 
 A parish priest ought to be a natural 
 peacemaker, the chief moral influence of 
 his people. 
 
 Knowledge and history are the enemies 
 of religion. 
 
 Fanaticism is not the enemy most to be 
 feared, but atheism. 
 
 Religion is, after all, a sort of inocula- 
 tion, or vaccination, which, in satisfying our 
 love of the marvelous, indemnifies us against 
 charlatans and magicians. Priests are worth 
 more than the Cagliostros (See Note 32), 
 the Kants (See Note 33), and all the dream- 
 ers of Germany. 
 
 Man's uneasiness is such, that the vague- 
 ness and the mystery which religion pre- 
 sents, are absolutely necessary to him. 
 
Napoleon in His O<wn Word's 
 
 The atheist is a better subject than the 
 fanatic; one obeys, the other kills. 
 
 To fear death is to make profession of 
 atheism. 
 
 The intellectual anarchy which we are 
 undergoing is the result of the moral anar- 
 chy, the extinction of faith, the negation 
 of principles, which have preceded. 
 
 Philosophers vainly strive; they would 
 establish systems, but they search in vain a 
 better doctrine than that of Christianity, 
 which has reconciled man with himself, in- 
 sured the peace and public order of nations, 
 and at the same time the happiness and the 
 hope of individuals. 
 
 Man loves the marvelous. It has an irre- 
 sistible charm for him. He is always ready 
 to leave that with which he is familiar to 
 pursue vain inventions. He lends himself 
 to his own deception. 
 
 Our credulity is a part of the imperfec- 
 tion of our natures. It is inherent in us to 
 
Concerning Religion 
 
 desire to generalize, when we ought, on the 
 contrary, to guard ourselves very carefully 
 from this tendency. 
 
 Who knows if the happiness of today 
 may not be the misfortune of the morrow? 
 Religion offers consolation in all phases of 
 life. One is less unhappy when one believes. 
 One finds from the very fact of belief, the 
 strength within himself to support unhappi- 
 ness. 
 
 The Christian religion will always be the 
 most solid support of every government 
 clever enough to use it. 
 
VIII 
 
 WAR 
 
 THERE are only two kinds of plans of 
 campaign, the good and the bad. The 
 good fail nearly always through unforeseen 
 circumstances, which often make the bad 
 succeed. 
 
 A general must be a charlatan. 
 
 Unhappy the general who comes on the 
 field of battle with a system. 
 
 The glory and honor of arms must be 
 the first consideration of a general in giving 
 battle, the safety and the conservation of 
 his men is only secondary. But it is often 
 in the audacity, in the steadfastness, of the 
 general that the safety and the conserva- 
 tion of his men is found. 
 
 The gesture of a beloved general is worth 
 more than a clever speech. 
 [116] 
 
War 
 
 A military man must have character as 
 well as brains. Men who have brains but 
 little character have no business in the pro- 
 fession of arms. It is like a ship with too 
 much sail for its hull. It is better to have 
 character and not so much brains. Men 
 who are only moderately supplied with 
 brains, but who have character, often suc- 
 ceed in this trade. You have got to have 
 as much base as height. The man who has 
 plenty of brains, and character in the same 
 degree, he is a Caesar, a Hannibal, a Tu- 
 renne (See Note 34), a Prince Eugene, or 
 a Frederick the Great. 
 
 Inevitable wars are always just. 
 
 The military principles of Caesar were 
 those of Hannibal, and those of Hanni- 
 bal were those o>f Alexander to hold his 
 forces in hand, not to be vulnerable at any 
 point, to throw all his forces with rapidity 
 on any given point. 
 
 The presence of the general is necessary; 
 he is the head, he is everything in an 
 army. It was not the Roman army which 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 reduced Gaul, but Caesar. It was not the 
 Carthaginian army which held the Repub- 
 lican army trembling at the gates of Rome, 
 but Hannibal. 
 
 An army which cannot be reen forced is 
 already defeated (See Note 
 
 A commander in chief ought to say to 
 himself several times a day: If the enemy 
 should appear on my front, on my right, 
 on my left, what would I do? And if the 
 question finds him uncertain, he is not well 
 placed, he is not as he should be, and he 
 should remedy it. 
 
 During a campaign no commander should 
 sleep under a roof; and there should be 
 only one tent, that of the general in chief, 
 necessary on account of the clerical work 
 to be done. 
 
 Military science is the calculation of 
 masses on given points. 
 
 The force of any army, like momentum 
 in mechanics, is represented by the mass 
 
War 
 
 multiplied by the rate of movement. A 
 rapid inarch adds to the morale of an army; 
 it increases its means of victory. 
 
 Nothing is more important in war than 
 singleness in command. So also when war 
 is made against a single power it is only 
 necessary to have a single army, acting ac- 
 cording to a single plan, and led by a, single 
 chief. 
 
 It is imagination which loses battles. 
 
 The moment of greatest peril is the mo- 
 ment of victory. 
 
 At the beginning of a campaign it is 
 important to consider whether or not to 
 move forward; but when one has taken 
 the offensive it is necessary to maintain it 
 to the last extremity. However skilfully 
 effected a retreat may be, it always lessens 
 the morale of an army, since in losing the 
 chances of success, they are remitted to the 
 enemy. A retreat, moreover, costs much 
 more in men and materials than the blood- 
 iest engagements, with this difference, also, 
 
 [119] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 that in a battle the enemy loses practically 
 as much as you do; while in a retreat you 
 lose and he does not. 
 
 Changing from the defensive to the 
 offensive, is one of the most delicate opera- 
 tions in war. 
 
 An army ought to be ready every mo- 
 ment to offer all the resistance of which it 
 is capable. 
 
 Never march by flank in front of an 
 army in position. This principle is absolute. 
 
 The keys of a fortress are worth the 
 liberty of its garrison when it has resolved 
 not to surrender itself. Thus it is always 
 more advantageous to grant honorable 
 terms of capitulation to a garrison which 
 has shown a vigorous resistance, than to 
 risk the chances of an assault. 
 
 Soldiers ought to be encouraged by all 
 means to remain with the colors. This will 
 be easily accomplished by showing high 
 esteem for old soldiers. Pay ought to be 
 
 [120] 
 
War 
 
 increased with years of service. It is a 
 great injustice not to pay a veteran more 
 than a recruit. 
 
 In war, as in love, in order to take a 
 decisive part, one must be right there. 
 
 The art of a general of the advance guard 
 or of the rear guard, is, without compromisr 
 ing himself too far, to hold the enemy, to 
 retard him, to delay him three or four hours 
 in making a league. To accomplish these 
 important results is a matter of tactics, and 
 more essential in cavalry command than in 
 infantry, and in advance or rear guard posi- 
 tions than in any other. 
 
 In a battle, as in a siege, the art consists 
 in concentrating very heavy fire on a par- 
 ticular point. The line of battle once estab- 
 lished, the one who has the ability to con- 
 centrate an unlocked for mass of artillery 
 suddenly and unexpectedly on one of these 
 points is sure to carry the day. 
 
 Generals who hold fresh troops for the 
 morrow of the battle, are nearly always 
 
 [121] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 beaten. One must use all his forces to the 
 very last man, if any purpose is served by 
 it, for on the morrow of a complete success 
 one has no obstacles before him; the force 
 of prestige alone will assure new triumphs 
 to the victor. 
 
 Dealing constantly with even the most 
 violent facts, involves less wear on the 
 heart than dealing with abstractions; mili- 
 tary men, therefore/have an advantage over 
 lawyers. 
 
 There is a joy in danger. 
 
 War is a serious game in which a man 
 risks his reputation, his troops, and his 
 country. A sensible man will search him- 
 self to know whether or not he is fitted for 
 the trade. 
 
 No man will seek epaulettes on the field 
 of battle, when he can get them in an ante- 
 chamber. 
 
 Nothing can excuse a general for profiting 
 by information gained in the service of his 
 [122] 
 
War 
 
 country to fight it and deliver its ramparts 
 to foreigners. This is a crime condemned 
 by religion, morality, and honor. 
 
 War is a natural state. 
 
 A general-in-chief should give repose to 
 neither victors nor vanquished. 
 
 There is only one favorable moment in 
 war; talent consists in knowing how to 
 seize it. 
 
 Coolness is the greatest quality in a man 
 destined to command. 
 
 The mind of a good general ought to 
 resemble in clearness the lens of a field- 
 glass. 
 
 He who cannot look over a battlefield 
 with a dry eye, causes the death of many 
 men uselessly. 
 
 In war, the chief alone understands the 
 importance of certain things, and he alone 
 is able by his will, and by his superior in- 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 formation, to vanquish and surmount all 
 difficulties. 
 
 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 accom- 
 plishment revolves. 
 
 There are some cases where the expend- 
 iture of men is an economy of blood. 
 
 The secret of great battles consists in 
 knowing how to deploy and concentrate at 
 the right time. 
 
 Information obtained from prisoners 
 ought to be accepted only at its real value. 
 A soldier sees nothing beyond his own com- 
 pany; and an officer is able, at the most, to 
 give an account of the position, or of the 
 movements, of the division to which his reg- 
 iment belonged. And the general-in-chief 
 ought to take into consideration the admis- 
 sions torn from prisoners only when they 
 are consistent with the reports of the ad- 
 [124] 
 
_ War _ 
 
 vance guard, in order to fortify his con- 
 jectures as to the position of the enemy. 
 
 The art of war consists in being always 
 able, even with an inferior army, to have 
 stronger forces than the enemy at the point 
 of attack or the point which is attacked 
 (See Note 
 
 The praises of enemies are always to be 
 suspected. A man of honor will not permit 
 himself to be flattered by them, except when 
 they are given after the cessation of hostil- 
 ities. 
 
 Prisoners of war do not belong to the 
 power for whom they have fought; they 
 are wholly under the safeguard of the honor 
 and generosity of the nation which has dis- 
 armed them. 
 
 Read, and re-read the campaigns of 
 Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Caesar, 
 Gustavus Adolphus, Turenne, Prince Eu- 
 gene, and of Frederick the Great; model 
 yourself after them; that is the only means 
 of becoming a great captain and of surpris- 
 [125] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 ing the secrets of the art of war. Your 
 genius enlightened by this study, you will 
 then reject every maxim contradictory to 
 those of these great men. 
 
 The most desirable quality in a soldier is 
 constancy in the support of fatigue; valor 
 is only secondary. 
 
 There are five things which a soldier must 
 never part with: his gun, his cartridges, 
 his haversack, provisions for four days at 
 least, and his trench tool. 
 
 Nothing augments a battalion like suc- 
 cess. 
 
 An army is a nation which obeys. 
 
 Policy and morals concur in repressing 
 pillage. 
 
 The best soldier is not so much the one 
 who fights as the one who marches. 
 
 As a result of holding councils of war 
 there happens what has always happene4 
 [126] 
 
War 
 
 from the beginning of time, we end by 
 resigning ourselves to the worst, which, in 
 war, is nearly always the most pusillanimous 
 part. 
 
 Gentleness, good treatment, honor the 
 victor and dishonor the vanquished, who 
 should remain aloof and owe nothing to 
 pity. 
 
 In war, audacity is the finest calculation 
 of genius. 
 
 When once the flames of civil war break 
 out, military chiefs are only the means of 
 victory; it is the crowd that governs. 
 
 In the wars of parties, defeat perma- 
 nently discourages; it is therefore in civil 
 wars especially, that good fortune is nec- 
 essary. 
 
 In civil war it is not given to every man 
 to know how to conduct himself. There is 
 something more than military prudence 
 necessary; there is need of sagacity and the 
 knowledge of men. 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 Give yourself all the chances of success, 
 when you plan to engage in a great battle, 
 especially if your opponent is a great cap- 
 tain; for if you are beaten, if you should be 
 in the midst of your stores, near your forti- 
 fied places, unhappy the vanquished. 
 
 Privation and misery are the real in- 
 structors of the soldier. 
 
 Nothing is so contrary to military rules 
 as to make the strength of your army 
 known, either in the orders of the day, in 
 proclamations, or in the newspapers. When 
 one is led to speak of his force he should 
 exaggerate their number, making the num- 
 ber formidable by doubling or trebling it; 
 and, on the contrary, when one speaks of 
 the force of the enemy, one ought to dimin- 
 ish their number by a half or a third; all is 
 fair in war. 
 
 Courage is like love; it must have hope 
 for nourishment. 
 
 War is a lottery in which nations ought 
 to risk nothing but small amounts. 
 
War 
 
 War is above all else an affair of skill. 
 
 In war a great disaster always indicates a 
 great culprit. 
 
 The man of genius always recovers him- 
 self after a fault as after a misfortune. 
 
 The French nation has never been van- 
 quished when united. 
 
 Our troops go forward spontaneously. 
 A war of invasion pleases them. But a 
 standstill defensive does not fit in with the 
 French genius. 
 
 There is but one honorable way to be 
 made a prisoner of war. That is to be 
 taken singly, and without being able to use 
 one's weapons. Then there is nothing else 
 to be done ; one yields to necessity. 
 
 Achilles was the son of a goddess and of 
 a mortal; in that, he is the image of the 
 genius of war. The divine part is all that 
 that is derived from moral considerations of 
 character, talent, the interest of your ad- 
 [ 129 ] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 versary, of opinion, of the temper of the 
 soldier, which is strong and victorious, or 
 feeble and beaten, according as he believes 
 this divine part to be. The mortal part is 
 the arms, the fortifications, the order of 
 battle everything which arises out of ma- 
 terial things. 
 
 In war any commander of a fortress who 
 yields it a moment sooner than he is obliged 
 to, deserves death. 
 
 Alarms dampen spirits and paralyze 
 courage. 
 
 When a city is in a state of siege, a 
 military commander becomes a sort of 
 magistrate and must conduct himself with 
 moderation and the decency which the cir- 
 cumstances require. 
 
 To violate military agreements is to re- 
 nounce civilization; it is to put one's self 
 on the level of the Bedouin of the desert. 
 
 The principle of all negotiations for an 
 armistice is that each shall remain in the 
 
 [130] 
 
War 
 
 situation in which the armistice finds him. 
 The rights of all follow from the application 
 of this principle. 
 
 Of all men, the soldier is the most sensible 
 to benefits. 
 
 When a nation has no records for enroll- 
 ment, and no principle of military organ- 
 ization, it is very hard for it to organize an 
 army. 
 
 For the brave a gun is only the handle of 
 a bayonet. 
 
 When a soldier has been disgraced and 
 dishonored by being flogged, he cares little 
 for the glory and honor of his country. 
 
 Intrepid men are not found among those 
 who have something to lose. 
 
 In war, genius is thought in action. 
 
 When conscription is no longer looked on 
 as a burden, but only as a point of honor, of 
 which each is jealous, then only is a nation 
 great, glorious, strong; it is then alone that 
 
 [131] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 it is in a position to brave reverses, inva- 
 sions time itself. 
 
 Courage cannot be counterfeited. It is 
 one virtue that escapes hypocrisy. 
 
 My custom is to sleep on the battlefield. 
 
 In war one must lean on an obstacle in 
 order to overcome it. 
 
 No man has a place in the French army 
 who values life more than the national glory 
 and the esteem of his comrades. 
 
 A general in the power of the enemy has 
 no more orders to give to those who still 
 fight. 
 
 In war, character and opinion make more 
 than half of the reality. 
 
 If ever an army invades England, London 
 will not be able to resist an hour. 
 
 That dependable courage, which in spite 
 of the most sudden circumstances, neverthe- 
 
War 
 
 less allows freedom of mind, of judgment 
 and of decision, is exceedingly rare. 
 
 Bravery is an innate quality; no one can 
 give it to you, it is in the blood. Courage 
 is a quality of the mind. Bravery is often 
 only impatience of danger. 
 
 War is becoming an anachronism; if we 
 have battled in every part of the continent 
 it was because two opposing social orders 
 were facing each other, the one which dates 
 from 1789, and the old regime. They could 
 not exist together; the -younger devoured 
 the other. I know very well, that, in the 
 final reckoning, it was war that overthrew 
 me, me the representative of the French 
 Revolution, and the instrument of its prin- 
 ciples. But no' matter ! The battle was lost 
 for civilization, and civilization will inevit- 
 ably take its revenge. There are two sys- 
 tems, the past and 'the future. The present 
 is only a painful transition. Which must 
 triumph? The future, will it not? Yes 
 indeed, the future! That is, intelligence, 
 industry, and peace. The past was brute 
 force, privilege, and ignorance. Each of 
 
 [133] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 our victories was a triumph for the ideas of 
 the Revolution. Victories will be won, one 
 of these days, without cannon, and without 
 bayonets. 
 
 It is not that addresses at the opening of 
 a battle make the soldiers brave. The old 
 veterans scarcely hear them, and recruits 
 forget them at the first boom of the cannon. 
 Their usefulness lies in their effect on the 
 course of the campaign, in neutralizing 
 rumors and false reports, in maintaining a 
 good spirit in the camp, and in furnishing 
 matter for camp-fire talk. The printed order 
 of the day should fulfill these different ends. 
 
 One is brave only for others. 
 
 What are the conditions that make for 
 the superiority of an army? Its internal 
 organization, military habits in officers and 
 men, the confidence of each in themselves; 
 that is to say, bravery, patience, and all that 
 is contained in the idea of moral means. 
 
 The issue of a battle is the result of an 
 instant, of a thought. There is the advance, 
 
 [134] 
 
War 
 
 with its various combinations, the battle is 
 joined, the struggle goes on a certain time, 
 the decisive moment presents itself, a spark 
 of genius discloses it, and the smallest body 
 of reserves accomplish victory. 
 
 In war, groping tactics, half-way meas- 
 ures, lose everything. 
 
 Europe will never be tranquil until nat- 
 ural limits are restored. 
 
 The worst punishment possible in a 
 French army is shame. 
 
 A man who has no consideration for the 
 needs of his men ought never to be given 
 command. 
 
 Left to themselves, infantry against cav- 
 alry would never reach definite results. But 
 with artillery, forces being equal, cavalry 
 ought to annihilate infantry. 
 
 An army should be constituted of a just 
 proportion of infantry, cavalry, and artil- 
 lery. These different arms never take the 
 
 [135] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 place of one another. For every thousand 
 men there should be four pieces of artillery, 
 and cavalry equal to a fourth of the in- 
 fantry. 
 
 One ought never to detach troops from an 
 army on the eve of an attack. Conditions 
 change from one moment to another. A 
 battalion may decide the fate of a day. 
 
 The infantry is the soul of an army. 
 
 The better infantry is, the more necessary 
 it is to handle them well, and to support 
 them with good batteries. 
 
 The strength of cavalry is in its impetus. 
 But it is not alone its rapidity which assures 
 success, it is its formation, its organization, 
 and the good employment of its reserves. 
 
 Artillery is more necessary to cavalry 
 than to infantry, since cavalry do not return 
 fire, and are not able to fight except with 
 side arms. It is to supplement this lack 
 that horse artillery has been originated. 
 Cavalry ought always to have its batteries 
 
War 
 
 with it, whether it attacks, remains in posi- 
 tion, or re-forms. 
 
 To plan to reserve cavalry for the finish 
 of the battle, is to have no conception of the 
 power of combined infantry and cavalry 
 charges, either for attack or for defense. 
 
 It is not necessary to dissimulate ; I intend 
 from this time to choose my admirals from 
 among the young officers of thirty-two and 
 thereabouts. I have enough frigate captains 
 with ten years' experience in navigation to 
 be able to choose from among them six, to 
 whom I would be willing to confide com- 
 mands. My intention is to advance and 
 develop these young men by every possible 
 means. 
 
 The art of war on land is an art of gen- 
 ius, of inspiration. In that of the sea there 
 is nothing of genius or inspiration. There, 
 everything is constant and according to ex- 
 perience. The general of the sea has need 
 of only one science, that of navigation. The 
 one on land has need of all, or of a talent 
 which is the equivalent of all, that will 
 
 [137] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 enable him to profit by all experience, and 
 all knowledge. A general of the sea has 
 nothing to divine. He knows where his 
 enemy is, he knows his strength. A general 
 on land never knows anything with cer- 
 tainty, never sees his enemy well, and never 
 knows positively where he is. 
 
 A general commandant-in-chief of a naval 
 army, and a general commandant-in-chief 
 of an army on land, need very different 
 qualities. One must be born with the qual- 
 ities necessary for the latter; while the 
 qualities necessary for the former can be 
 acquired only by experience. 
 
 A general-in-chief on the sea depends 
 more on his captains of vessels than a gen- 
 eral-in-chief on land does on his generals. 
 On land the commander-in-chief has the 
 right, and the opportunity, to himself take 
 direct command of troops, to support every 
 point, and to remedy any false movements. 
 A general of the sea has personal influence 
 only on the men on the vessel on which he 
 happens to be, the smoke preventing sig- 
 nals from being seen on the others. It is 
 
War 
 
 therefore, of all callings, that one wherein 
 subalterns must take the most on themselves. 
 
 In order not to be astonished at obtaining 
 victories, one ought not to think only of 
 defeats. 
 
 The loss of our naval battles arose from 
 the lack of force in the generals-in-chief, to 
 their defects of tactics, and to the belief held 
 by the captains that they ought to act only 
 in accordance with signals. 
 
 On land, an undisciplined bravery has 
 been able to win sometimes; on the sea, 
 never. 
 
 We celebrate a victory, even while we 
 weep over the fallen, even enemies. 
 
 In war, luck is half in everything. 
 
 My most splendid campaign was that of 
 March 20; not a single shot was fired (See 
 Note 37). 
 
 I have a hundred thousand pensioners. 
 
IX 
 
 SOCIOLOGY 
 
 OUR light-heartedness, lack of reflec- 
 tion, comes to us honestly. We will 
 always be Gauls. We will not place a true 
 value on things until we substitute principles 
 for turbulence, pride for vanity, and love of 
 institutions for love of places. 
 
 In France, only the impossible is admired. 
 
 I have shown France what she is capable 
 of; let her achieve it. 
 
 The distinctive characteristic of our 
 nation is that we are much too mercurial in 
 prosperity. 
 
 The French people have two equally 
 powerful passions which seem the very 
 opposites of each other, but which, neverthe- 
 less, grow out of the same sentiment. They 
 are the love of equality and the love of dis- 
 [ HO] 
 
Sociology 
 
 tinctions. A government can satisfy these 
 two needs only by exact justice. The law 
 and the operation of government should be 
 equal for all, and honors and rewards should 
 come to those men who, in the eyes of all, 
 seem most worthy. 
 
 The sentiment of national honor is never 
 more than half extinguished in the French. 
 It takes only a spark to re-kindle it. 
 
 The Emperor observed that we French, 
 if we had less energy than the Romans, had 
 more decency. We would not have killed 
 ourselves, as they did, under the first 
 Emperors, but we would not have shown 
 all the turpitude, all the servility, that was 
 displayed under the last. " Even in our 
 most corrupt moments," said he, " our 
 baseness was not without a certain reserve/' 
 
 The French nation is easily governed if 
 one does not get at cross purposes with it. 
 Nothing equals its quick and easy compre- 
 hension. It distinguishes, instantly, those 
 who work for it, and those who work 
 against it. The appeal must always be made 
 
 [141] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 to its intelligence. Otherwise its inquiet 
 spirit frets itself, it ferments and explodes. 
 
 Credulity has been the national charac- 
 teristic of the French since the time of the 
 Gauls. 
 
 If the Roman people had made the same 
 use of their strength that the French people 
 have of theirs, the Roman Eagles would 
 still surmount the Capital, and eighteen 
 centuries of slavery and of tyranny would 
 not have dishonored the human species. 
 
 Without a navy, France is exposed to all 
 sorts of insults. 
 
 Every system finds apologists in France. 
 
 The French complain of everything, and 
 always. 
 
 France loves change too much for any 
 government to endure there. 
 
 With a sincere ally, France will be mis- 
 tress of the world. 
 
Sociology 
 
 When I learn that a nation can live with- 
 out bread, then I will believe that the French 
 people can live without glory. 
 
 The French are, perhaps, the only nation 
 in which all ranks of society, can be moved 
 equally strongly by means of honor. 
 
 I would like the title of Frenchman to be 
 the finest, the most desirable, in the world; 
 that every Frenchman traveling anywhere 
 in Europe should believe himself, should 
 find himself, always among friends. 
 
 There is nothing which you cannot get 
 from the French by the lure of danger. It 
 seems to give them spirit. 
 
 It is a part of the French character to 
 exaggerate, to complain, and to distort 
 everything when dissatisfied. 
 
 Among the English, the higher classes 
 have pride; among us, unfortunately, they 
 have only vanity. Herein is the great and 
 characteristic difference between the two 
 people. The great mass of our people, today 
 
 [i43] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 at least (1816), constitute that people of 
 Europe in which the national sentiment is 
 strongest. It has profited by its twenty-five 
 years of revolution; but, unfortunately, the 
 class which the Revolution has raised has 
 not responded in any degree to its new 
 destinies. It has shown only corruption and 
 versatility. It has displayed in these last 
 crises neither talent nor character nor vir- 
 tue. It has lost the honor of the nation (See 
 Note 38). 
 
 Valor, the love of glory, is an instinct, a 
 sort of sixth sense, with the French. Many 
 a time in the heat of battle, my attention 
 has been arrested by the sight of a young 
 conscript, in his first engagement, throwing 
 himself into the struggle. Honor and cour- 
 age seemed to exude from every pore. 
 
 France will always be a great nation. 
 
 The Turks can be killed, but they can 
 never be conquered. 
 
 No one saw in my war in Spain the pos- 
 session of the Mediterranean. 
 [ 144] 
 
Sociology 
 
 Europe is a molehill. It has never had 
 any great empires, like those of the Orient, 
 numbering six hundred million souls. 
 
 Antwerp is ever a loaded pistol aimed at 
 the heart of England. 
 
 England is the only power whose interest 
 it is that France shall not have Belgium ; and 
 as long as England will not allow France to 
 possess that country, there is no sincerity 
 in her alliance. 
 
 Whoever possesses Constantinople ought 
 to rule the world. 
 
 When the Russians make themselves 
 masters of Constantinople, they will be able 
 to retain as many Moslems there as they 
 care to, by assuring them of their property 
 rights, and tolerating their religion. The 
 Moors of Spain submitted to everything, 
 even the inquisition, and it took an order 
 from Ferdinand and Isabella to expel them. 
 
 I have inplanted in the Italians principles 
 which will never be eradicated, but which 
 
 [145] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 will go on forever working out their natural 
 results. 
 
 It will take a skilful legislator to develop 
 a taste for arms among the Italians. 
 
 One of my cherished thoughts has been 
 to reunite and reestablish, geographically, 
 the peoples which revolutions and politics 
 have broken up and parcelled out. There 
 are in Europe thirty million French, fifteen 
 million Spaniards, fifteen million Italians, 
 thirty million Germans, and twenty million 
 Poles ; I would make of each, one nation. 
 The impulse has been given, each of these 
 results will be accomplished; and it is my 
 thought which will have served the future 
 destiny of Europe (See Note 
 
 Europe has its history, often tragic, 
 though at intervals consoling. But to speak 
 of any universally recognized national rights 
 or that these rights have played any part in 
 its history, is to play with the powers of 
 public credulity. Always the first duty of a 
 state has been its safety; the pledge of its 
 safety, its power; and the limits of its power, 
 
Sociology 
 
 that intelligence of which each has been 
 made the depository. When the great pow- 
 ers have proclaimed any other principle, it 
 has been only for their own purposes, and 
 the smaller powers have never received any 
 benefit from it. Poland, Venice, have dis- 
 appeared from the earth as states, while the 
 assembled spectators have seen in these 
 political funerals nothing but their own loss. 
 Whenever there has been a partition of 
 spoils, or compensation given in lieu of them, 
 there has been no suggestion of ambition. 
 But these compensations, though they have 
 always been exacted in the name of justice, 
 have always, in fact, been in the name of 
 force. That is all there is of reality in the 
 pretended European Code. That is what our 
 modern statesmen have called their " balance 
 of power," a ridiculous term which, to the 
 wars engendered by pure ambition, has 
 added other wars. It is a mistaken theory 
 which has furnished pretext for many iniq- 
 uities, but which has saved the weak, only 
 when the strong have not known just how to 
 get around it. From this so-called great prin- 
 ciple there have followed two things, each 
 historically true. One is that each state 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 claims the right to control interests foreign 
 to itself when those interests are such that 
 it can control them without putting its own 
 interests in danger. The other principle is 
 that the other powers only recognize this 
 right of intervening in proportion as the 
 country doing it has the power to do it. 
 
NOTES 
 
 Note I. Napoleon gave the seal of sincerity 
 to this extremely cynical philosophy, by his ejacu- 
 lation, " Oh, well ; a rival the less," when told of 
 the death of General Kleber by assassination in 
 Cairo, June 14, 1800. Kleber was undoubtedly 
 one of the greatest generals of the French revo- 
 lutionary epoch. 
 
 Note 2. This is generally looked on as Na- 
 poleon's own idealization and defense of himself 
 and of his seizure of power, the successive steps 
 by which he sought to make himself the founder 
 of a dynasty, and of the despotic character of his 
 government. 
 
 Note 3. Acting, at least to some extent, in the 
 spirit here enunciated, Napoleon in 1802 instituted 
 the Order of the Legion of Honor. All previ- 
 ously existing French military or religious orders 
 those of | St. Michael, the Holy Ghost, St. 
 Louis, and Military Merit, as well as the united 
 orders of St. Lazarus and Our Lady of Mount 
 Carmel had been abolished at the Revolution. 
 The Legion of Honor survived the restoration of 
 the Bourbons, indeed was adopted by them, 
 though modified in some particulars, while the 
 old orders were restored. It has maintained itself 
 through all political changes, and since the estab- 
 
 [149] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 lishment of the Third Republic has been the only 
 military order in France for it is essentially 
 military in character, though not strictly confined 
 to the recognition of military merit. It is con- 
 ferred for distinguished services of any kind, and 
 is not limited to citizens of France. The order 
 has occasionally been conferred on women, as for 
 instance on Rosa Bonheur, the painter, and on 
 Madame Curie, who with her husband discovered 
 radium. 
 
 Note 4. The necessity for a code in France 
 grew out of the immense number of separate sys- 
 tems of jurisprudence existing in the country be- 
 fore 1789, justifying Voltaire's sarcasm that a 
 traveler in France had to change laws about as 
 often as he changed horses. The conception of 
 a general code for the whole country had oc- 
 curred to statesmen and jurists before Napoleon; 
 and the Convention, in fact, discussed two proj- 
 ects presented by Cambaceres, one of which had 
 been found too complicated and the other too 
 condensed. 
 
 Napoleon, on becoming Consul, appointed a 
 commission headed by M. Tronchet to review 
 previous efforts and to present a new project. 
 In four months the project was presented to the 
 government, submitted to the judges, and dis- 
 cussed by the Council of State Napoleon him- 
 self taking part in the deliberations. At first pub- 
 lished under the title of Code Civil des Francais, 
 it was afterwards called the Code Napoleon 
 the Emperor wishing to attach his name to a 
 work which he regarded as the greatest glory of 
 his reign. 
 
 [150] 
 
Notes 
 
 The Code Napoleon consists of 2,281 articles, 
 arranged under titles and divided into three books, 
 preceded by a preliminary title. The subjects of 
 the different books are, first, " Des Personnes " ; 
 second, " Des biens et des differents modifications 
 de la propriete " ; third, " Des differents manieres 
 d'acquerir la propriete." It has passed through 
 several changes caused by the political vicissitudes 
 of the country, and it has, of course, suffered 
 from time to time important alterations in sub- 
 stance, but it still remains virtually the same in 
 principle as it left the hands of its framers. 
 
 The remaining French codes are the " Code de 
 Procedure civile," " Code de Commerce," " Code 
 d'instruction criminelle," and the " Code penal." 
 
 The merits of the Code Napoleon have entered 
 into the discussion on the general subject of 
 codification. Austin agrees with Savigny in con- 
 demning the ignorance and haste with which it 
 was compiled. " It contains," says Austin, " no 
 definitions of technical terms (even the most lead- 
 ing), no exposition of the rationale of distinc- 
 tions (even the most leading), no exposition of 
 the broad principles and rules to which the nar- 
 rower provisions in the code are subordinate 
 hence its fallacious brevity." All the French 
 Codes have, however, taken firm root in most of 
 the continental countries of Europe. Introduced 
 by French conquest, they nevertheless were 
 eagerly adopted by the people after the French 
 arms had been withdrawn. 
 
 Note 5. Henry iv (1553-1610), son of An- 
 tony of Bourbon, King of Navarre, and Jeanne 
 of Albret, was, on his father's side, the tenth in 
 
 [151] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 descent from Saint Louis. He was brought up a 
 Calvinist by his mother. In 1571 he married Mar- 
 garet of Valois, daughter of Catherine de Medici. 
 He escaped the massacre of St. Bartholomew only 
 by professing Catholicism, but on his escape 
 from court in 1575 he became the acknowledged 
 head of the Huguenots, and by his dashing brav- 
 ery kept life in their dispirited forces. He had all 
 the qualities of a guerilla leader, though he was 
 not a great general. His conversion to Catholi- 
 cism in 1593 proved of great political advantage, 
 and by 1598 he had overcome all important op- 
 posing influences. He issued the Edict of Nantes 
 in April, 1598, and from that time on devoted 
 his energies to the restoration of the country dev- 
 astated by nearly forty years of civil war. The 
 organizing genius of Maximilian of Bethune, 
 Duke of Sully, restored the finances, and agricul- 
 ture, manufactures, and commerce made mar- 
 velous advances. 
 
 Henry was assassinated by Ravaillac, May 14, 
 1610. 
 
 Philip iv, known as Philip the Fair, King of 
 France, was born in 1268 and died in 1314. His 
 was a troubled reign, including a controversy 
 with Pope Boniface vin; and while Philip the 
 Fair in his personality does not challenge our 
 sympathy, he stands as one of the great figures in 
 French history. He is thought of as the first 
 sovereign in the modern sense. He made himself 
 the head of both the temporal power and the 
 church in France, freed himself in large degree 
 from the feudal lords, increased the royal domain, 
 and greatly developed both administrative and 
 judicial institutions. 
 
 [152] 
 
Notes 
 
 Note 6. Voltaire, whose real name was Fran- 
 cois Marie Arouet, was born in Paris in 1694 and 
 died there in 1778. He began to call himself 
 Arouet de Voltaire, or simply Voltaire, after his 
 release from the Bastille in April, 1718. His 
 father was a prosperous notary from whom he 
 inherited a comfortable fortune; and Voltaire, 
 himself, had the money-making ability, not wholly 
 free from unscrupulousness, and amassed a con- 
 siderable fortune. To his own age Voltaire was 
 preeminently a poet and philosopher. Later ages 
 have questioned whether he was entitled to either 
 name. But he exercised a wonderful influence on 
 his own century, an influence that was in many 
 aspects very largely beneficial. Throughout his 
 whole life he was the opponent of intolerance, 
 especially of religious and political intolerance. 
 No other writer has written on as great a variety 
 of subjects as he, nor as much, and everything he 
 wrote was French in its limpid clearness, ele- 
 gance, precision, and purity of style. The most 
 diametrically opposite opinions have been held of 
 him, but there can be little doubt that he was one 
 of the great men not only of his time but of all 
 times. 
 
 Note 7. The Encyclopedists is a name by 
 which the world designates that wonderful body 
 of men, D'Alembert, Diderot, Voltaire, Montes- 
 quieu, Rousseau, and their associates, who wrote, 
 edited and otherwise prepared that marvelous 
 work, the French Encyclopedia, published during 
 the period from 1751 to 1772. No encyclopedia 
 perhaps has been of such political importance, or 
 has occupied so conspicuous a place in the civil 
 
 [153] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 and literary history of its century. It sought not 
 only to give information but to guide opinion. 
 It was theistic but heretical. 
 
 It was opposed to the church, then all powerful 
 in France, and it treated dogma historically. It 
 was a war machine. As it progressed, its attacks 
 both on the church and on the still more despotic 
 government, became bolder and more undisguised, 
 and it was met by opposition and persecution 
 unparalleled in the history of encyclopedias. The 
 preliminary discourse by D'Alembert printed with 
 the first volume gives an admirable and compre- 
 hensive view of the scope and extent of human 
 knowledge as it existed at the period immediately 
 preceding the French Revolution, and from this 
 point of view is the most important philosophic 
 work of the eighteenth century. The Encyclo- 
 pedia in many ways prepared the way for the 
 Revolution by spreading knowledge, awakening 
 inquiry and intelligence, and by the direction it 
 gave to thought regarding human rights. 
 
 Note 8. Fenelon, Francois de Salignac de la 
 Mothe, Archbishop of Cambray and one of the 
 most celebrated names in the intellectual and ec- 
 clesiastical history of France in the seventeenth 
 century, was born August 6, 1651, and died Janu- 
 ary 17, 1715. He came of a family ennobled 
 from the middle of the fifteenth century which 
 gave many distinguished names to France. He 
 became the preceptor of the young Duke of Bur- 
 gundy, a violent and impetuous, but affectionate 
 and bright child, whom he developed into a well- 
 disciplined and promising youth whose life, if 
 spared, might have brought blessing to France. 
 
 [154] 
 
Notes 
 
 For the instruction of his pupil, Fenelon wrote, 
 among other things, his celebrated Telemaque. 
 In this his enemies saw covert criticisms of the 
 government of Louis xiv, and the publication of 
 this work resulted in his losing the royal favor. 
 Out of the Quietist doctrines, championed by 
 Madame Guyon, which he scrupled to condemn, 
 there grew a bitter controversy with Bossuet, and 
 Fenelon was condemned by the Holy See. He 
 submitted to this decision and spent the remainder 
 of his life in his diocese in ceaseless works of 
 Christian piety and charity, becoming more hon- 
 ored in his retirement than he had been in Paris. 
 Fenelon is chiefly remembered for the beauty 
 of his character, his tender and mystic devotion, 
 and the charm of his style as a writer. He is 
 not great as a thinker, nor can the substance of 
 his writings be said to have a permanent value. 
 But there is the same subtle delicacy, sensibility, 
 tenderness, and purity of expression in his style 
 as in his character. An exquisite, highly-toned, 
 and noble genius pervades the one as the other. 
 As a man he is one of the greatest figures in a 
 great time. As a writer he has been placed in 
 prose on the same level with Racine in poetry. 
 In both there is the same full harmony and clear- 
 ness, the same combination of natural grace with 
 perfect art. 
 
 Note 9. Jean de la Fontaine was born in 
 1621 and died in 1695. His fame as a poet is 
 based on his tales and his fables. The latter 
 have an irresistible charm and have become uni- 
 versal property, accepted by every age since 
 his. They touch the most diverse human 
 
 [155] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 qualities, but always with delicious originality. 
 They are veritable creations. No one has 
 rivaled him in the exquisite grace, the malicious 
 good humor, the simplicity, and naturalness with 
 which he makes the personages of his fables 
 speak, nor in the perfect art of his style. While 
 in these fables he has given expression to a few 
 sentiments of personal egotism, on the whole his 
 works bear the imprint of the engaging sweetness, 
 the innocent kindliness, and the sensibility of his 
 nature. 
 
 Note 10. Jean Racine, celebrated French 
 tragic poet, was born in 1639 and died in 1699. 
 He was the friend of Boileau, La Fontaine, and 
 Moliere. In some respects the rival of Corneille, 
 his works are gentler, nearer nature, and more 
 human in their touch. While Corneille sought 
 complicated plots within which his heroes de- 
 ployed their superhuman qualities, Racine sought 
 simple, clear plots, in which the delineation of 
 passions in simple fidelity to truth was his effort. 
 His influence on the French language of his time 
 was both extensive and beneficial. Among his 
 principal tragedies are, Andromaque, Britannicus, 
 Mithridate, Iphigenie, and Phedre, and the sacred 
 tragedies, Esther, and Athalie. 
 
 Note ii. Tartu ffe is a comedy in five acts by 
 Moliere, and the masterpiece of French comedy. 
 Tartuffe, the chief character, will always remain 
 the type of perversity and dissimulated corruption 
 under an exterior of respectability; in other 
 words, of hypocrisy. Many passages of the com- 
 edy have passed into the language as proverbs. 
 
 [156] 
 
Notes 
 
 Note 12. Gil Bias is one of the most cele- 
 brated romances in literature. It was written by 
 Alain Rene le Sage, a Frenchman (1668-1747), 
 the creator of the romance of manners. Gil Bias, 
 the hero of the story, has become the type of the 
 well-brought-up and instructed young man living 
 constantly by expedients more or less doubtful, 
 and who is constantly throwing himself into new 
 adventures. 
 
 Note 13. Francois Rene de Chateaubriand, an 
 illustrious French writer (1768-1848), traveled 
 in America, returning to France just as the Rev- 
 olution began. He became an emigre in 1792. 
 After the Restoration he was minister of foreign 
 affairs. The most salient qualities of his style 
 are brilliancy, wealth of imagination, and a gor- 
 geous eloquence. He exercised a considerable 
 influence on the development of romantic litera- 
 ture. Posterity has not found the same value in 
 his writings that his contemporaries did. The 
 Genius of Christianity is the work by which he 
 is best known to English readers. 
 
 Note 14. Jean Francois de la Harpe (1739-' 
 1803), was a French poet and literary critic. 
 Among others of his works is a Cours de Lit- 
 terature, which is excellent, especially for the 
 seventeenth century. 
 
 Note 15. Madame de Stael (1766-1817), was 
 the daughter of the famous financier Necker. 
 Her husband was Eric Magnus, Baron of Stael- 
 Holstein, Ambassador of Sweden to France. Her 
 marriage was largely one of convenience. Her 
 
 [157] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 husband obtained money, and she a position; but 
 there was no scandal. They had three children. 
 She was ambitious for power and influence in a 
 noisy extravagant way, though honest and sincere 
 in her political convictions, which were liberal. 
 Just why there should have been the bitterness 
 between Napoleon and herself it is hard to say. 
 She was a woman of influence, and it doubtless 
 displeased Napoleon that she should show herself 
 recalcitrant to his influence. But it also doubtless 
 pleased Madame de Stael to quite an equal degree, 
 that Napoleon should apparently put forth his 
 power to crush her and fail. Napoleon's course 
 toward her was little creditable to him. He exiled 
 her from France and he suppressed her book 
 Germany, after it had been passed by the censor. 
 Coppet is a Swiss village on the Lake of Geneva 
 where she made her home during much of her 
 exile. Her books, of which Corinne and Delphine 
 are probably the best known, were given extrava- 
 gant praise during her life, but are now little 
 read. Her son edited an edition of her writings 
 in seventeen volumes. She counted among those 
 whom she greatly influenced, Benjamin Constant, 
 Schlegel, Talleyrand, Narbonne, Jaucourt, Gui- 
 bert, Byron, and many others. She was a re- 
 markable woman in many ways, and as Napoleon 
 said, " she will endure." 
 
 Note 16. Armide and Clorinde, or, as they are 
 known under the English spelling, Armida and 
 Clorinda, are two characters in Tasso's Jerusalem 
 Delivered. Armida, seductively beautiful, who 
 was sent forth by the infernal senate to sow dis- 
 cord in the Christian camp, turns the action of 
 
Notes 
 
 the epic. Her name is often used to designate a 
 woman who fascinates by her seductive charms. 
 Clorinda, on the other hand, bravely donning ar- 
 mor, like Marfisa, fights in duel with her devoted 
 lover, receives baptism from his hands in her pa- 
 thetic death, and has become the type of the 
 courageous woman who scorns the fears and 
 weaknesses so natural to her sex. 
 
 Note 17. Pierre Augustin, Caron de Beau- 
 marchais, was born in Paris in 1732 and died in 
 1799. He was the author of The Barber of Se- 
 ville, The Marriage of Figaro, and Mere Coupa- 
 ble, all of them audacious dramas, sparkling with 
 witty lines, full of movement and gaiety. Beau- 
 marchais was audacious and adventurous in char- 
 acter, and he has left some remarkable and 
 curious Memoirs, the material for which grew 
 largely out of his controversies with Counsellor 
 Goezman. 
 
 Note 18. The Theatre Francaise, or as it has 
 for a long time been known, the Comedie Fran- 
 caise, was founded by Louis xiv in 1680. It had 
 exclusive rights until the Revolution, when the 
 liberty of the theatre, among other liberties, was 
 proclaimed; and there were soon no less than 
 fifty theatres in Paris. In 1807 the Empire re- 
 stricted the number to nine, and reinstated the 
 Theatre Francaise in sole possession (or nearly 
 such) of the right of performing the classic 
 drama. 
 
 Note 19. The Chateau, or Palace, of Ver- 
 sailles was designed by Mansard for Louis xiv. 
 
 f'59] 
 
] Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 It was the favorite residence of the Bourbons for 
 a hundred years. The States-General met here in 
 May, 1789, and from this meeting dates the 
 French Revolution. The King of Prussia was 
 proclaimed Emperor of Germany here in 1871. It 
 was the residence of the President of the French 
 Republic from 1871 to 1879. Louis Phillipe re- 
 stored the palace to its ancient splendor. It is 
 one of the showplaces of France and is visited 
 annually by thousands. 
 
 Note 20. In 1789 the Constituent Assembly 
 proclaimed that all authority emanated from the 
 nation, and that there was no authority in France 
 superior to the law. Conceiving that the per- 
 sistence of the old provinces with their variety 
 of local customs might be an obstacle to the 
 thorough working out of this idea, it abolished 
 these provinces, as administrative divisions, and 
 divided France into eighty-three departments 
 which were administered by locally elective offi- 
 cials for a time. The Revolutionary Government 
 took some of their power away from these, ap- 
 pointing a commissioner of its own in each de- 
 partment. When Napoleon became First Consul, 
 all elective representation in the department was 
 abolished and a prefect was appointed by him 
 for each. These prefects, each in his own de- 
 partment, controlled the entire departmental ad- 
 ministration : Conscription, taxation, agriculture, 
 commerce, public works, education, and charity 
 " everything relating to the public wealth, the na- 
 tional prosperity, and the peace of those under 
 your Administration," as a circular of instructions 
 to prefects issued at the time, expressed it. This 
 
 [160] 
 
Notes 
 
 system prevailed under the Consulate, the Empire, 
 and the Restoration. Decentralization and local 
 representation in departmental affairs began in 
 1830 and were extended after the revolution of 
 1848, and still further under the Republic. Though 
 the prefect has lost much of his former power, 
 he is still an important functionary. He repre- 
 sents the national government; he has a certain 
 veto or restraining power over mayors and mu- 
 nicipal councils; he is responsible for the public 
 order ; he can call for troops to suppress riots ; his 
 regulations regarding matters coming within the 
 scope of his authority have the force of law; 
 and he has the appointment of a large number 
 and variety of minor functionaries and public 
 employes, including the teachers in the public 
 schools. 
 
 Note 21. The Battle of Rossbach was fought 
 November 5, 1757, between 25,000 Prussians, un- 
 der Frederick the Great, and 64,000 French and 
 Imperial troops the French under the Duke of 
 Soubise and the Imperial troops under the Prince 
 of Hildburghausen. It was one of the decisive 
 battles of " The Seven Years War." 
 
 Note 22. The body known as the University 
 of Paris was founded about 1150, and from its 
 beginning had very great privileges. It alone 
 had the control and direction of public instruc- 
 tion, and in addition had jurisdiction in other 
 particulars. On numerous occasions it took part 
 in public affairs. It defended the liberties of the 
 Church in France, and carried on long struggles 
 against certain religious orders. The Univer- 
 
 [161] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 sity was suppressed in 1790, but was reorganized 
 by Napoleon in 1808. He put at the head of it a 
 Grand Master, and placed it directly under the 
 control of the state ; and France was territorially 
 divided into six academies, each presided over by 
 a Rector. At the present time the name Univer- 
 sities is given to the several bodies, which, each 
 in its own division of France, has direction and 
 control of higher education. These bodies are 
 all united in a Council of the University, of which 
 the Minister of Public Instruction is Grand 
 Master. 
 
 Note 23. The Lycees are a system of free 
 schools for secondary instruction. They were 
 founded in Paris in 1787 for instruction in lit- 
 erature and science. 
 
 Note 24. La Gabelle was a tax. on salt, a part 
 of a system of state salt monopoly under the 
 ancient regime in France. The price of salt 
 varied in different provinces. Each individual 
 was obliged to buy a certain amount of salt, re- 
 sulting in much that was vexatious in the enforce- 
 ment of the tax and the monopoly. This salt tax 
 was fully established in 1340 and was abolished 
 in 1789 with many other tyrannies and abuses by 
 the spirit of equality and freedom which brought 
 about the French Revolution. 
 
 Note 25. In France the institution of juries 
 in criminal cases dates from 1791. It was one of 
 the fruits of the French Revolution, and in the 
 action and reaction of opinion that surged so 
 violently during the years immediately following, 
 
 [162] 
 
Notes 
 
 it had hardly had time to become a firmly fixed 
 institution in Napoleon's day. 
 
 Note 26. Achille de Harlay, President of the 
 Parliament of Paris, was born in Paris in 1536. 
 He died in 1619. Matthieu Mole (1584-1656), 
 President of the Parliament of Paris, and Keeper 
 of the Seal, played an important role during the 
 Fronde. He negotiated the Peace of Ruel early 
 in 1649. 
 
 Note 27. At the Revolution the restrictions on 
 the freedom of the press were swept away, the 
 Assembly declaring it to be the right of every 
 citizen to print and publish his opinions. The 
 press remained effectually free in France until 
 the Law of February 5, 1810, secured by Na- 
 poleon, established a direction of the press. The 
 restrictions on the freedom of the press continued 
 to be a factor, 'in some degree, of every change in 
 the form of government from that time to the 
 establishment of the Third Republic, when liberty 
 of the press was completely reestablished. 
 
 Note 28. The Bank of France, which had 
 been founded in 1799, was definitely organized by 
 the law of April 26, 1806, which gave the man- 
 agement of the bank to a governor and two 
 deputy governors, appointed by the chief of the 
 state, and assisted by a council of fifteen regents 
 and three censors, elected by the shareholders. 
 In addition to issuing bank notes which circulate 
 as freely as gold, the bank has all the usual 
 banking powers, and transacts a wide variety of 
 commercial and financial functions. It is the 
 
 [163] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 great instrument of credit in France. By loans 
 in difficult circumstances it has more than once 
 supported the government, which owns a large 
 number of its shares. 
 
 Note 29. Laissez faire, laissez passer, was the 
 maxim into which Gournay (1712-1759), one of 
 the leading members of that school of political 
 economists known as the Physiocrats, condensed 
 his doctrine of industrial freedom, which is that 
 trade and industry and every guiltless exercise of 
 individual will should be left free from taxation 
 or restriction or interference by government, ex- 
 cept so far as is required by public peace and 
 order. No English translation of the French 
 expression conveys any idea of the economic doc- 
 trine it embodies; and thus the expression itself, 
 usually abridged to laissez faire has been adopted 
 into our language as the term by which this doc- 
 trine is identified or understood. 
 
 Note 30. Emigres is a name given to those 
 members of the French aristocracy, or more ex- 
 actly to those partisans of the old regime, who 
 fled from France beginning within a few days 
 after the fall of the Bastille, July 14, 1789. The 
 emigres appealed to foreign governments and 
 brought about armed invasion of their own 
 country. 
 
 Note 31. The Island of Martinique is one of 
 the Lesser Antilles, and has been a French pos- 
 session, with short interruptions, for nearly three 
 hundred years. African slave labor was early 
 introduced, and by 1736 there were 72,000 blacks. 
 
Notes 
 
 Slavery was abolished by the Convention in the 
 early course of the French Revolution, and in 
 1794 the island was taken possession of by the 
 English under Sir John Jervis and Sir Charles 
 Grey, and retained for eight years, and it is of 
 this action that Napoleon speaks. The Empress 
 Josephine was born in Martinique in 1763. 
 
 Note 32. Joseph Balsamo, Count of Caglios- 
 tro, an Italian occultist, physician, and clever 
 charlatan, was born at Palermo, about 1743. He 
 had a successful career at the court of Louis xvi 
 and in Parisian society. He died in 1795. 
 
 Note 33. Emmanuel Kant (1724-1804), one 
 of the greatest of philosophers, was the grandson 
 of a Scotchman who settled in East Prussia. He 
 was born at Konigsberg. He is best known by 
 his Critique of Pure Reason. 
 
 Note 34. Turenne (1611-1675) was one of 
 France's greatest captains. In character he was 
 very simple, very modest. His military genius 
 utilized careful calculations and deep study and 
 thought. His memoirs have been published and 
 their value to students of military matters is 
 very great. 
 
 Note 35. This is the philosophical summing 
 up of Napoleon's experience in Egypt. Nelson's 
 victory of the Nile, lost to Napoleon and the 
 French the control of the Mediterranean. The 
 Directory was no longer able to reenforce him. 
 In no way could he make up for the losses to his 
 army which even victories entailed. His army 
 
 [165] 
 
Napoleon in His Own Words 
 
 became smaller and smaller; but, with that genius 
 for success which was the mainspring of his des- 
 tiny, Napoleon, after the Acre campaign, seized 
 the right moment and a plausible reason for 
 transferring the command to the less subtle 
 Kleber, and himself returned to France with the 
 luster of success not wholly dimmed, to embrace 
 opportunity, and command armies still animated 
 and recruited by the Republican youth of France. 
 
 Note 36. General Forrest, the brilliant cav- 
 alry leader of the Confederacy, is said to have 
 expressed this guiding principle by declaring that 
 the way to win was to " get there first with the 
 most men." 
 
 Note 37. By the campaign of March 20, Na- 
 poleon refers to the events following his return 
 from Elba and his arrival at Paris. He landed 
 March i, 1815, between Cannes and Antibes, and 
 twenty days later entered the Tuileries in triumph. 
 Louis xvin left the Tuileries March 19, and on 
 the next day Napoleon entered Paris. 
 
 Note 38. Napoleon at this time had not been 
 long at St. Helena. It was still fresh in his mem- 
 ory that after his abdication June 22, 1815, in 
 favor of his son, the Chamber of Representa- 
 tives passed this son over, and named an execu- 
 tive commission of five, the Bourbons, in the 
 person of Louis xvm, thus being restored. 
 
 Note 39. This utterance of Napoleon acquires 
 a particular significance at this time when, as a 
 result of the war between Germany and Austria 
 
 [166] 
 
Notes 
 
 on the one side, and Russia, France, and Great 
 Britain on the other, so much has been said and is 
 being said of the possibility, as a result of this 
 war, of just what Napoleon expressed the desire 
 to do. 
 
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