Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes

In war it is not men, but the man who counts.

Weapons are an important factor in war, but not the decisive one; it is man and not materials that counts.

Like a good general, I treated everyone who wasn't with me as against me.

War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.

Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head.

The object of a general is not to fight, but to conquer: he fights enough who obtains the victory.

The skillful tactician may be likened to the shuai-jan. Now the shuai-jan is a snake that is found in the Ch'ang mountains. Strike at its head, and you will be attacked by its tail; strike at its tail, and you will be attacked by its head; strike at its middle, and you will be attacked by head and tail both.

A prince must not have any other object nor any other thought… but war, its institutions, and its discipline; because that is the only art befitting one who commands.

Men, I am not ordering you to attack. I am ordering you to die. In the time that it takes us to die, other forces and commanders can come and take our place.

War is not at all such a difficult art as people think. . . . In reality it would seem that he is vanquished who is afraid of his adversary and the the whole secret lies in that.

One bad general is worth two good ones.

Strategy was first used in Athens (508 BC) to describe the art of leadership used by the ten generals on the war council. Some argue for the more creative, human side, while others argue for the more analytic side of strategy.

The control of a large force is the same principle as the control of a few men: it is merely a question of dividing up their numbers.

I feel very strongly that the significance of 9/11 cannot be underestimated. It forces us to think in new ways about strategy, about national security, about how we structure our forces and about how we use U.S. military power.

Any clever person can make plans for winning a war if he has no responsibility for carrying them out.

It takes more courage to send men into battle than to fight the battle yourself.

In war, numbers alone confer no advantage. Do not advance relying on sheer military power.

A general-in-chief should ask himself several times in the day, What if the enemy were to appear now in my front, or on my right, or my left?

In war one must lean on an obstacle in order to overcome it.

No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply out of pique.

Free men cannot start a war, but once it is started, they can fight on in defeat. Herd men, followers of a leader, cannot do that, and so it is always the herd men who win battles and the free men who win wars.

A prince must not have any objective nor any thought, nor take up any art, other than the art of war and its ordering and discipline; because it is the only art that pertains to him who commands. And it is of such virtue that not only does it maintain those who were born princes, but many times makes men rise to that rank from private station.

It is imperative to master the principles of the art of war and learn to be unmoved in mind even in the heat of the battle.

Intelligence and war are games, perhaps the only meaningful games left. If any player becomes too proficient, the game is threatened with termination.

He is cautious. He ought to be. But he is NOT slow. Lee is a phenomenon. He is the only man whom I would follow blindfolded.