Loud Thinking

Archive for May, 2013

If the art of war were nothing but the art of avoiding risks, glory would become the prey of mediocre minds…. I have made all the calculations; fate will do the rest.

Statement at the beginning of the 1813 campaign, as quoted in The Mind of Napoleon (1955) by J. Christopher Herold, p. 45

Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.

From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step.

What I have done up to this is nothing. I am only at the beginning of the course I must run.

All great events hang by a hair. The man of ability takes advantage of everything and neglects nothing that can give him a chance of success; whilst the less able man sometimes loses everything by neglecting a single one of those chances.

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

“Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.”

“Victory belongs to the most persevering.”

“He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.”

“I saw the crown of France laying on the ground, so I picked it up with my sword.”