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
“Imagination rules the world.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Secondary source“Everything tells me I shall succeed.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Primary source“The keys of a fortress are worth the liberty of its garrison when it has resolved not to surrender itself. Thus it is always more advantageous to grant honorable terms of capitulation to a garrison which has shown a vigorous resistance, than to risk the chances of an assault.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Disputed“Success is the most convincing talker in the world.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte DisputedMore quotes by Napoleon Bonaparte →
“Lost time is never found again.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“I am drunk, seest thou? When I am not drunk I do not talk. You have never heard me talk much. But an intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend his time with fools.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“Necessity never made a good bargain.”
— 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