NAPOLEON

1. The instinct of active, brave, able men, throughout the middle class everywhere, has pointed out Napoleon as the incarnate Democrat.—EMERSON
   

2. Napoleon is thoroughly modern, and, at the highest point of his fortunes, has the very spirit of the newspapers.—EMERSON
   

3. Napoleon was a man! His life was the stride of a demigod.—GOETHE
   

4. Napoleon was whipped because he carried a chip on his shoulder: this is the one thing that the gods who write the laws of nations will not palliate nor excuse.—ELBERT HUBBARD
   

5. There was no longer any room for Napoleon. . . . Smoking blood, over-filled cemeteries, mothers in tears,—these are formidable pleaders . . . Napoleon had been denounced in the infinite, and his fall had been decided on. He embarrassed God.—VICTOR HUGO, Les Miserables
   

6. A little while ago, I stood by the grave of Napoleon . . . I would rather have been a French peasant and worn wooden shoes . . . and gone down to the tongueless silence of the dreamless dust, than to have been that imperial impersonation of force and murder known as "Napoleon the Great."—ROBERT INGERSOLL

7. I saw none but you, I admired none but you; I desire only you. Answer at once, and calm the impatient ardor of—N.—NAPOLEON, to Marie Walewska

8. It is my great privilege to be a leader of nations. Once I was an acorn; now I am an oak. Yet when I am the oak to all others, I am glad to become the acorn to you.—NAPOLEON, to Marie Walewska

9. There are times when all splendors become oppressive, as I feel but too deeply at the present moment. How can I satisfy the desires of a heart that yearns to cast itself at your feet, when its impulses are checked at every point by considerations of the highest moment? Oh, if you would, you alone might overcome the obstacles that keep us apart. My friend Duroc will make all easy for you. Oh, come, come! Your every wish shall be gratified! Your country will be dearer to me when you take pity on my poor heart.—NAPOLEON, to Marie Walewska

10. The first Napoleon, dining at a table full of monarchs, when he heard one of them deferentially alluding to the Bonaparte family as being very old and noble, exclaimed: Pish! My nobility dates from the of Marengo!"

11. No one but myself can be blamed for my fall. I have been my own greatest enemy, the cause of my disastrous fate.—NAPOLEON, Ludwig: Napoleon

12. There are two motives to action: self-interest and fear. Believe me love is a foolish blindness! . . . I love no one, not even my brothers . . . Let us leave sensibilities to women. Men should be firm of heart and strong of will . . . I have an iron heart. I never really loved . . . I incline to the view of Gassion, who once said to me that he did not love life well enough to give it to another being.—NAPOLEON, Ludwig: Napoleon
    

13. I have had no luck since I gave up Josephine.—NAPOLEON
    

14. I am neither an atheist nor a rationalist; I believe in God, and am of the religion of my father. I was born a Catholic, and will fulfil all the duties of that church, and receive the assistance which she administers.—NAPOLEON
    

15. I desire that you preserve my heart in spirits of wine, and that you carry it to Parma to my dear Marie Louise.—NAPOLEON, To Dr. Antomniarchi, at death
    

16. I wish my ashes to repose on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people I have loved so well.—NAPOLEON'S WILL
    

17. I foresee that he [Napoleon] will bring disaster on himself and all his family. He should be content with what he has. He tries to grasp too much, and will lose all.—NAPOLEON'S MOTHER, Ludwig: Napoleon
    

18. Grand, gloomy, and peculiar, he sat upon the throne a sceptred hermit, wrapped in the solitude of his own originality.—CHARLES PHILLIPS
    

19. Although too much of a soldier among sovereigns, no one could claim with better right to be a sovereign among soldiers.SCOTT, Life of Napoleon
    

20. What! alive, and so bold, O earth?—SHELLEY, Upon hearing of Napoleon's death
    

21. He [Napoleon] neither hates nor loves; for him, no one exists but himself; all other people are merely `number so-and-so.' A great chess-player, for whom humanity-at-large is the adversary he hopes to check­mate. His success is quite as much due to the qualities he lacks as to the qualities he possesses . . . Where his own interest is involved, he pursues it as the just man seeks virtue; if his aim were good, his perseverance would be exemplary. . . . I have never been able to breathe freely in his presence.—MME. DE STAEL
    

22. Though more than half the world was his,
    He died without a rood his own;
    And borrowed from his enemies
    Six feet of ground to lie upon.—THACKERAY, The Chronicle of the Drum
    

23. I don't care a twopenny damn what becomes of the ashes of Napoleon Bonaparte.—Attr. to DUKE OF WELLINGTON