Napoleon III quotes

" Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide. " # Friends and Friendship

" Imagination rules the world. " # Imagination

" Ability is nothing without opportunity. " # Opportunity

" Valor is a gift. Those having it never know for sure whether they have it till the test comes. And those having it in one test never know for sure if they will have it when the next test comes. " # Valor

" The army is the true nobility of our country. " # Army and Navy # Nations # Aristocracy

" The Empress is legitimate, my cousin is Republican, Morny is Orleanist, I am a socialist; the only Bonapartist is Persigny, and he is mad. " # Politicians and Politics # Communism and Socialism # Socializing and Socialism

" The great art of governing consists in not letting men grow old in their jobs. " # Uncategorised # Government # Arts and Artists

" If I were an Englishman, I should esteem the man who advised a war with China to be the greatest living enemy of my country. You would be beaten in the end, and perhaps a revolution in India would follow. " # Uncategorised # Revolutions and Revolutionaries # War

" In my youth, I, too, entertained some illusions; but I soon recovered from them. The great orators who rule the assemblies by the brilliancy of their eloquence are in general men of the most mediocre political talents: they should not be opposed in their own way; for they have always more noisy words at command than you. Their eloquence should be opposed by a serious and logical argument; their strength lies in vagueness; they should be brought back to the reality of facts; practical arguments destroy them. In the council, there were men possessed of much more eloquence than I was: I always defeated them by this simple argumenttwo and two make four. " # Uncategorised # Politicians and Politics # Speakers and Speaking

" Even in war moral power is to physical as three parts out of four. " # Uncategorised # War # Power