Napoleon I of France on War

"A cowardly act! What do I care about that? You may be sure that I should never fear to commit one if it were to my advantage."

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

"If I had not been defeated in Acre against Jezzar Pasha of Turk. I would conquer all of the East"

"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."

"Changing from the defensive to the offensive, is one of the most delicate operations in war."

"War is a lottery in which nations ought to risk nothing but small amounts."

"In war, groping tactics, half-way measures, lose everything."

"In war, luck is half in everything."

"A general must be a charlatan."

"Muhammad was a great man, an intrepid soldier; with a handful of men he triumphed at the battle of Bender ; a great captain, eloquent, a great man of state, he revived his fatherland and created a new people and a new power in the middle of Arabia."

"You call these baubles, well, it is with baubles that men are led... Do you think that you would be able to make men fight by reasoning? Never. That is only good for the scholar in his study. The soldier needs glory, distinctions, and rewards."

"At the battle of Waterloo, when Napoleon's cavalry had charged again and again upon the unbroken squares of British infantry, at last they were giving up the attempt, and going off in disorder, when some of the officers in mere vexation and complete despair fired their pistols at those solid squares."

"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."

"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 adversary, 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 material things."

"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 bloodiest engagements, with this difference, also, that in a battle the enemy loses practically as much as you do; while in a retreat you lose and he does not."