Maxims and Thoughts

Discover Napoleon not through dry textbook pages, but through his vivid, sharp, and sometimes unexpected judgments—written on Saint Helena by his close associate, Count Las Cases. Here, the emperor is revealed not only as a commander and statesman, but also as a thinker, a man of letters, and a keen observer of human character—from reflections on strategy to musings on power, fate, and the nature of man.

This edition includes statements of Napoleon Bonaparte recorded on Saint Helena by a member of his entourage, Count Emmanuel-Augustin de Las Cases. These thoughts touch not only politics and the events of his reign, but also history, philosophy, and literature, allowing us to see the scale of the personality, the breadth of knowledge, and the intellectual depth of the legendary emperor.

The translations are presented in the same sequence in which they were published in the Paris edition of 1820, and are accompanied by the translator’s necessary commentary. In addition, the book gathers other sayings of Napoleon known from correspondence and memoirs of his contemporaries.