“That is just it, work is my element; I was born and made for it. I have found the limits of my legs; I have found the limits of my eyes; but I have never been able to find the limits of my labour.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
The Memorial of Saint Helena (Secondary source)
The Memorial of Saint Helena is a detailed account by Emmanuel de Las Cases of Napoleon Bonaparte’s reflections, conversations, and recollections during his exile on Saint Helena (1815-1816). Blending memoir, dialogue, and political philosophy, it offers an intimate portrait of Napoleon’s mind and became one of the most influential Napoleonic testimonies.
More about “The Memorial of Saint Helena” →
“At dinner, he told us that he was much better, and we pointed out to him, about this, that, for some time however, he had not been out, and had been working eight, ten, or twelve hours a day. That is just it, said he: work is my element; I was born and made for it. I have found the limits of my legs; I have found the limits of my eyes; but I have never been able to find the limits of my labour.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
“Everything tells me I shall succeed.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Primary source“Imagination rules the world.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Secondary source“There is nothing in war, which I cannot do by my own hands. If there is nobody to make gunpowder, I can manufacture it. The guncarriages I know how to construct. If it is necessary to make cannons at the forge, I can make them. The details of working them in battle, if it is necessary to teach, I shall teach them. In administration, it is I alone who have arranged the finances, as you know.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Disputed“Coolness is the greatest quality in a man destined to command.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte DisputedMore quotes by Napoleon Bonaparte →
“Lost time is never found again.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“If a man has failed, you will find he has dreamed instead of working. There is no way to success in our art, but to take off your coat, grind paint, and work like a digger on the railroad, all day and every day.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“If the use of leisure time is confined to looking at TV for a few extra hours every day, we will deteriorate as a people.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt Primary source“Necessity never made a good bargain.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source