Napoleon affords us an example of the danger of elevating one's self to the absolute, and sacrificing everything to the carrying out of an idea.
|
Anyone who clings to the historically untrue - and thoroughly immoral - doctrine that violence never settles anything I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler would referee. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forgot this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and there freedoms.
|
High culture is nothing but a child of that European perversion called history, the obsession we have with going forward, with considering the sequence of generations a relay race in which everyone surpasses his predecessor, only to be surpassed by his successor. Without this relay race called history there would be no European art and what characterizes it: a longing for originality, a longing for change. Robespierre, Napoleon, Beethoven, Stalin, Picasso, they're all runners in the relay race, they all belong to the same stadium.
|
The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.
|
A Constitution should be short and obscure.
|
There is no class of people so hard to manage in a state, as those whose intentions are honest, but whose consciences are bewitched.
|
History is a set of lies agreed upon.
|
The Bible is no mere book, but a Living Creature, with a power that conquers all that oppose it.
|
Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals.
|
In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.
|
Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
|
One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority.
|
If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.
|
A leader is a dealer in hope.
|
Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence
|
It requires more courage to suffer than to die.
|
A celebrated people lose dignity upon a closer view.
|
Secrets travel fast in Paris.
|
He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.
|
In politics stupidity is not a handicap.
|
To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.
|
Ability is of little account without opportunity.
|
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
|
The best cure for the body is a quiet mind.
|
When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.
|
Water, air, and cleanness are the chief articles in my pharmacy.
|
Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.
|
Truth alone wounds.
|
It is all a question of sensitiveness. Brute force and overbearing may make a terrific effect. But in the end, that which lives by delicate sensitiveness. If it were a question of brute force, not a single human baby would survive for a fortnight. It is the grass of the field, most frail of all things, that supports all life all the time. But for the green grass, no empire would rise, no man would eat bread: for grain is grass; and Hercules or Napoleon or Henry Ford would alike be denied existence.
|
Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.
|