Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes

There are only two forces that unite men - fear and interest.

Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever Through compromise and fear.

War is human. People fight for the same reasons that the Greek Historian Thucydides identified nearly 2,500 years ago: fear, honor and interest.

Sometimes people invent things because they want to stay alive or feed their children or conquer the village next door. But just as often, new ideas come into the world simply because they're fun. And here's the really strange thing: many of those playful but seemingly frivolous inventions ended up sparking momentous transformations in science, in politics and society.

Fear is stronger than love

There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.

In revolution there are only two sorts of men, those who cause them and those who profit by them.

Gentlemen, since the settlement of that Constitution, now nearly two centuries ago, England has never experienced a revolution, though there is no country in which there has been so continuous and such considerable change. How is this? Because the wisdom of your forefathers placed the prize of supreme power without the sphere of human passions. Whatever the struggle of parties, whatever the strife of factions, whatever the excitement and exaltation of the public mind, there has always been something in this country round which all classes and parties could rally, representing the majesty of the law, the administration of justice, and involving, at the same time, the security for every man's rights and the fountain of honor.

In no form of government is there an absolute identity of interest between the people and their rulers

Agitated by revolutionary movements, these grow in proportion to the force that resists them.

The absolutists of contract are the real parents of revolution.

People almost never give up their freedoms — including, at times, the right to kill and impoverish one another — unless forced to do so; and virtually the only force strong enough to bring this about has been defeat in war or fear that such a defeat is imminent.

A revolution cannot survive without an enemy in front of it..

If people come out of an election and everyone’s despairing, everyone’s in a collective civic funk, we don’t get anything done. Simply reminding people of how bad things are and what you lost, nobody’s moved by that. People are moved by the sense of possiblity, a sense of hope.

when greed and fear are linked to power, you have a dangerous mix. We see that in political life. In part of the world, the mix of greed and fear means that those who get power become reluctant to give it back. One of the many things I like and admire in our democracies are the norms that make our leaders hand over power when voters tell them to

'The Prince' was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. 'Rules for Radicals' is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.

Politicians neither love nor hate. Interest, not sentiment, directs them.

I've seen a lot of political violence in my life. I know what it looks like. I know what it smells like. I know what motivates young men to do it. I've talked to them about it. I know what victims feel like, you know? I know the abominable effect it has on politics. I know how intractable it is.

The course of nationalism, once it's attached to a cause opposite yours, is still the strongest force in the world.

Hate is a powerful energy. If you want to do anything, resist hate. Resist it.

Mr. Putin presents himself as a czar - and like any czar, he fears revolution above all else.

The politics of hope is harder to spread than the politics of hate.

Tomorrow the revolution will 'rise up again, clashing its weapons,' and to your horror it will proclaim with trumpets blazing: I was, I am, I shall be!

There are two levers for moving men - interest and fear.

Wars are never fought for altruistic reasons. They're usually fought for hegemony, for business. And then of course there's the business of war.