Excerpt from Napoleon’s Diary: see excerpts – Napoleon’s Diary
Milan, June 17, 1800: … What a thing is imagination! Here
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are men who don't know me, who have never seen me, but
who only knew of me, and they are moved by my presence,
they would do anything for me! And this same incident arises
in all centuries and in all countries! Such is fanaticism! Yes,
imagination rules the world. The defect of our modern
institutions is that they do not speak to the imagination. By
that alone can man be governed; without it he is but a brute.
December 30, 1802: My power proceeds from my reputation,
and my reputation from the victories I have won. My power
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would fall if I were not to support it with more glory and more
victories. Conquest has made me what I am; only conquest can
maintain me….
Saint Helena, March 3, 1817: In spite of all the libels, I have no
fear whatever about my fame. Posterity will do me justice. The
truth will be known; and the good I have done will be
compared with the faults I have committed. I am not uneasy
as to the result. Had I succeeded, I would have died with the
reputation of the greatest man that ever existed. As it is,
although I have failed, I shall be considered as an extraordinary
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man: my elevation was unparalleled, because unaccompanied
by crime. I have fought fifty pitched battles, almost all of which
I have won. I have framed and carried into effect a code of
laws that will bear my name to the most distant posterity. I
raised myself from nothing to be the most powerful monarch in
the world. Europe was at my feet. I have always been of [the]
opinion that the sovereignty lay in the people.
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