14 Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes on Ethics

Napoleon Bonaparte quotes on ethics

22. Morality has nothing to do with such a man as I am.

24. The hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.

25. Among so many conflicting ideas an so many different perspectives, the honest man is confused and distressed and the skeptic becomes wicked ... Since one must take sides, one might as well choose the side that is victorious, the side which devastates, loots, and burns. Considering the alternative, it is better to eat than to be eaten.

36. A king is sometimes obliged to commit crimes; but they are the crimes of his position.

47. A man like me troubles himself little about the lives of a million men

68. Cruelty can only be justified by necessity.

72. Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals.

85. Great ambition is the passion of a great character. He who is endowed with it may perform either very great actions or very bad ones; all depends upon the principles which direct him.

111. If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.

114. In choosing a wife, a man does not renounce his mother, and still less is he justified in breaking her heart.

176. The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.

180. There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.

190. To seduce a wife from her husband, or a son from his father, are odious acts, unworthy of civilised nations.

199. We must not take up arms for vain prospects of grandeur, nor the allurements of conquest.