#432 The Mind of Napoleon
What I learned from reading The Mind of Napoleon by Napoleon.
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Some of my favorite quotes:
0:00 — " The book gives you insight into the mind of a man who combined energy of thought and energy of action to an exceptional degree."
0:30 — "Work is my element. I am born and built for work. I have known the limitations of my legs, I have known the limitations of my eyes; I have never been able to know the limitations of my working capacity."
0:52 — "He knows that men have always been the same, that nothing can change their nature. It is from the past that he will draw his lessons in order to shape the present."
1:33 — "All my life I have sacrificed everything: comfort, self-interest, happiness, to my destiny. Destiny must be fulfilled that is my chief doctrine."
2:33 — "A consecutive series of great actions never is the result of chance and luck; it always is a product of planning and genius. Is it because they are lucky that [great men] become great? No, but being great, they have been able to master luck. What is luck? The ability to exploit accidents: The vulgar would call this luck, but in fact it is the characteristic of genius."
3:30 — "Hesitation is fatal; once an action is begun, it must be followed through with the utmost exertion of the will."
3:44 — "If I have any ambition, it is so natural to me, so innate, so intimately linked with my existence, that it is like the blood that circulates in my veins, like the air that I breathe."
4:14 — "To have lived without glory, without leaving a trace of one's existence, is to have not lived at all."
6:25 — "Without great men, we have only mediocre men, and if there had never been anything but mediocre men, we would still be half apes."
7:20 — "The great majority of men attend to what is necessary only when they feel a need for it-the precise time when it is too late."
7:30 — "True character always pierces through in moments of crisis. There are sleepers whose awakening is terrifying."
9:11 — "Be successful! I judge men only by the results of their actions."
11:15 — "The truth is that everything around us is miracle."
15:18 — "Men of genius are meteors destined to be consumed in lighting up their century."
16:13 — "A man must know himself. Until then, all endeavors are in vain and all schemes collapse."
17:53 — "All great events hang by a single thread. The clever man takes advantage of everything, neglects nothing that may give him some added opportunity; the less clever man, by neglecting one thing, sometimes misses everything."
18:12 — "What I am, I owe to strength of will, character, application, and daring."
19:27 — "Imagination rules the world."
20:58 — " History I conquered rather than studied. That is to say, I wanted from it, and retained of it, only what could add to my ideas. I spurned what was of no use, and I seized upon certain conclusions that pleased me."
26:01 — " It is better to eat than be eaten."
26:08 — "Appetite comes with eating."
27:43 — "It may be possible to arrest the surge of progress or to throttle it, but not to destroy it."
29:01 — " I have read your letter. It is utterly worthless. There are too many words and not enough ideas."
31:08 — "Without talent, without knowledge, there is no equality but the equality of misery and servitude."
33:46 — Napoleon to someone who hasn't studied history: " Speak as little as possible. Your knowledge is too limited, and your education has been too neglected for you to engage freely in discussions."
36:08 — "The corpse of an enemy always smells sweet.”
36:44 — "If you wage war, do it energetically and with severity. This is the only way to make it shorter and consequently less inhuman."
39:30 — ""In war, men are nothing. One man is everything."
40:20 — "Death is nothing, but to live defeated and without glory is to die every day."
46:23 — "Conquest made me what I am. Conquest alone can keep me there."
46:34 — "Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me."
47:13 — "My soul is made of marble. Lightning has found no grip on it and had to slide off of it. I have no fear of becoming their victim. They will be biting into granite."