Napoléon Bonaparte

Courage isn't having the strength to go on - it is going on when you don't have strength.

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.

If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.

Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.

If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.

It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.

Always carry champagne! In victory You deserve it & in defeat You need it!

Ability is of little account without opportunity.

I am surrounded by priests who repeat incessantly that their kingdom is not of this world, and yet they lay hands on everything they can get.

Men of great ambition have sought happiness . . . and have found fame.

Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him.

Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

Men of learning in Milan have not enjoyed proper respect. They hid themselves in their laboratories and thought themselves lucky if . . . priests left them alone. All is changed today. Thought in Italy is free. Inquisition, intolerance, despots have vanished. I invite scholars to meet and propose what must be done to give science and the arts a new flowering.

There is no place in a fanatic's head where reason can enter.

Water, air, and cleanness are the chief articles in my pharmacy.

I often asked Laplace what he thought of God. He owned that he was an atheist.

The only victories which leave no regret are those which are gained over ignorance.