C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Napoleon
A faithful friend is the true image of the Deity.
A journalist is a grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations. Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.
A well-composed song strikes and softens the mind, and produces a greater effect than a moral work, which convinces our reason, but does not warm our feelings, nor affect the slightest alteration in our habits.
Ability is of little account without opportunity.
Across the chasm of eighteen hundred years Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy. He asks that for which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; he will have it entirely to himself; he demands it unconditionally, and forthwith his demand is granted. Wonderful!
Alexander, Cæsar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded empires; but upon what do these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love; and to this very day millions would die for Him.
All celebrated people lose on a close view.
All systems of morality are fine. The Gospel alone has exhibited a complete assemblage of the principles of morality divested of all absurdity. It is not composed, like your creed, of a few commonplace sentences put in bad verse. Do you wish to see that which is really sublime? Repeat the Lord’s Prayer.
All the great captains have performed vast achievements by conforming with the rule of art—by adjusting efforts to obstacles.
All the scholastic scaffolding falls, as a ruined edifice, before one single word—faith.
All the women in the world would not make me lose an hour.
America is a fortunate country. She grows by the follies of our European nations.
An aristocracy is the true support of a monarchy.
Brave deeds are the monuments of brave men.
Called to the throne by the voice of the people, my maxim has always been, A career open to talent without distinction of birth. It is this system of equality for which the European oligarchy detests me.
Circumstances! I make circumstances.
Do you know what is more hard to bear than the reverses of fortune? It is the baseness, the hideous ingratitude, of man.
Even in war, moral power is to physical as three parts out of four.
Every hour of lost time is a chance of future misfortune.
For my part, it is not the mystery of the incarnation which I discover in religion, but the mystery of social order, which associates with heaven that idea of equality which prevents the rich from destroying the poor.
Forethought we may have, undoubtedly, but not foresight.
Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.
France needs nothing so much to promote her regeneration as good mothers.
Friendship is but a name. I love no one.
From the sublime to the ridiculous there is but one step.
Generals are not to be too scrupulous.
History is but a fable agreed upon.
I have doubtless erred more or less in politics, but a crime I never committed.
If you (to General Bertrand) do not perceive that Jesus Christ is God, very well; then I did wrong to make you a general.
Imagination rules the world.
Independence, like honor, is a rocky island, without a beach.
It is the cause, and not the death, that makes the martyr.
Jesus Christ was more than man.
Keep a good table and don’t forget the ladies.
Love is the occupation of the idle man, the amusement of a busy one, and the shipwreck of a sovereign.
Mankind are in the end always governed by superiority of intellectual faculties, and none are more sensible of this than the military profession. When, on my return from Italy, I assumed the dress of the Institute, and associated with men of science, I knew what I was doing: I was sure of not being misunderstood by the lowest drummer boy in the army.
Men are led by trifles.
Men, in general, are but great children.
Music, of all the liberal arts, has the greatest influence over the passions, and is that to which the legislator ought to give the greatest encouragement.
Occupation is the scythe of time.
Promptly improve your accidents.
Public instruction should be the first object of government.
Religion is, in fact, the dominion of the soul; it is the hope, the anchor of safety, the deliverance from evil. What a service has Christianity rendered to humanity!
Revolutions are like the most noxious dungheaps, which bring into life the noblest vegetables.
Suicide is a crime the most revolting to the feelings; nor does any reason suggest itself to our understanding by which it can be justified. It certainly originates in that species of fear which we denominate poltroonery. For what claim can that man have to courage who trembles at the frowns of fortunes? True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life in whatever shape they may challenge him to combat.
The bed has become a place of luxury to me! I would not exchange it for all the thrones in the world.
The conscience is the inviolable asylum of the liberty of man.
The contagion of crime is like that of the plague. Criminals collected together corrupt each other; they are worse than ever when at the termination of their punishment they re-enter society.
The fate of a battle is the result of a moment, of a thought: the hostile forces advance with various combinations, they attack each other and fight for a certain time; the critical moment arrives, a mental flash decides, and the least reserve accomplishes the object.
The fate of war is to be exalted in the morning, and low enough at night! There is but one step from triumph to ruin.
The future destiny of the child is always the work of the mother.
The greatest ornament of an illustrious life is modesty and humility, which go a great way in the character even of the most exalted princes.
The heart may be broken, and the soul remain unshaken.
The nature of Christ’s existence is mysterious, I admit; but this mystery meets the wants of man. Reject it, and the world is an inexplicable riddle; believe it, and the history of our race is satisfactorily explained.
The only victory over love is flight.
The sight of a battlefield after the fight is enough to inspire princes with a love of peace and a horror of war.
The worse the man, the better the soldier.
There are calumnies against which even innocence loses courage.
There is no class of men so difficult to be managed in a state, as those whose intentions are honest, but whose consciences are bewitched.
There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed.
They may say what they like; everything is organized matter. The tree is the first link of the chain; man is the last. Men are young; the earth is old. Vegetable and animal chemistry are still in their infancy. Electricity, galvanism,—what discoveries in a few years!
’Tis a principle of war that when you can use the lightning, ’tis better than cannon.
To a father who loves his children victory has no charms. When the heart speaks, glory itself is an illusion.
Tragedy warms the soul, elevates the heart, can and ought to create heroes. In this sense, perhaps, France owes a part of her great actions to Corneille.
True wisdom, in general, consists in energetic determination.
Truth alone wounds.
Vengeance is without foresight.
Victory belongs to the most persevering.
War,—the trade of barbarians!
What a solace Christianity must be to one who has an undoubted conviction of its truth!
What is history but a fable agreed upon?
When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.
When I was happy I thought I knew men, but it was fated that I should know them in misfortune only.
When the heart speaks, glory itself is an illusion.
Where flowers degenerate man cannot live.