Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes

If Germany wins, she will dominate France; the independence of Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and perhaps of Norway and Sweden, will be a mere shadow; their separate existence as nations will be fiction; all their harbours will be at Germany's disposal; she will dominate the whole of Western Europe, and this will make our position quite impossible. We could not exist as a first class State under such circumstances.

For four hundred years the foreign policy of England has to oppose the strongest, most aggressive, most dominating Power on the Continent …

England’s drama is to be forced to choose between the remains of her Empire at the price of American hegemony and a loyal commitment to the continent.

Unless Germany has gone out of her mind, she will never attack Russia, England and France combined.

the avowed pretension of the United States, to put themselves at the head of the confederacy of all the Americas, and to sway that confederacy against Europe (Great Britain included), is not a pretension identified with our interests, or one that we can countenance or tolerate. It is, however, a pretension which there is no use in contesting in the abstract; but we must not say anything that seems to admit this principle.

In the event of a victory over Germany by Soviet Russia and England, Bolshevism in Europe would inevitably follow. Under these circumstances I would prefer to see Germany win the war. I feel that an understanding could be reached (with Germany) which would result in a lasting peace with Europe and believe that a German victory is preferable to a British and Soviet victory.

We are going to liberate Europe, but that’s because the Americans are with us to do it. For, understand this, every time we must choose between Europe and the open sea, we will always choose the open sea. Every time that I have to choose between you and Roosevelt, I will always choose Roosevelt.

France is, and must always remain, England’s greatest danger.

These claims [to then Spanish Florida] will be a subject of negotiation with Spain, and if, as soon as she is at war, we push them strongly with one hand, holding our a price in the other, we shall certainly obtain the Floridas, and all in good time.

Let them [France and Germany] especially put their demands in such a way that Great Britain could say that she supported both sides.

Europe’s slow political decline has been disguised for decades by American power.

To go into Ukraine and to take over, to invade Crimea, is a huge step. And [Russian President Vladimir Putin] would only have done it with a president who has shown from the very beginning that [President Obama] is living in a fantasy world...They imagine the world as a new interconnected world where climate change is the biggest threat and they are shocked that the Russians actually are interested in territory.

I've always held the view that great states need strategic space. I mean, George Washington took his space from George III. Britain took it from just about everybody. Russia took all of Eastern Europe. Germany's taken it from everywhere they can, and China will want its space too.

If Japan had been near to either England or France, war would have broken out long ago.

And the big question for the West, of course, and to the Europeans is, what other countries, which were formerly part of the Soviet bloc, should be incorporated into western institutions?

America is interested in re-arranging the region as it sees fit.

Mr. Chamberlain desires to avert the threat to England's peace by making England, in alliance with Germany, stronger than her rivals and so to force them to renounce their hostile intentions against her.

So you're quite right that when... as the Cold War grew and expanded out of Europe, we ourselves had to take refuge behind the shield of the Monroe Doctrine.

Limitless enlargement of Europe means the death of political Europe.

The natural alliance is between ourselves and the great German Empire.

Clearly, for France in her present position, intelligent activity consists of practicing a policy of entente with Germany in order to survive

... a renunciation of our further intention to maintain the Monroe Doctrine and would proclaim that we had joined the horde of European greed in attempting to absorb as many of the weaker powers on earth as possible.

Intimately concerned as we are with the system of Europe, it does not follow that we are therefore called upon to mix ourselves on every occasion, with a restless and meddling activity, in the concerns of the nations which surround us.

The cabinets of Europe, far from being united, weakened each other with endless recrimination, which led people in Paris to believe that the measure of iniquity might be filled without fear of consequences.

France does not pretend to base her interests on disregard for the interests of others. France possesses a special standing in Morocco.