TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “Genius is two percent inspiration, ninety-eight percent perspiration.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index N > Category: Napoleon

Napoleon Quotes (16 quotes)

[Napoleon] directed Bourrienne to leave all his letters unopened for three weeks, and then observed with satisfaction how large a part of the correspondence had thus disposed of itself, and no longer required an answer.
Lecture, 'Napoleon', collected in Representative Men (1850), 177.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte (20)  |  Communication (101)  |  Correspondence (24)  |  Direct (228)  |  Dispose (10)  |  Large (398)  |  Leave (138)  |  Letter (117)  |  Long (778)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Part (235)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Unopened (3)  |  Week (73)

[The ancient monuments] were all dwarfs in size and pigmies in spirit beside this mighty Statue of Liberty, and its inspiring thought. Higher than the monument in Trafalgar Square which commemorates the victories of Nelson on the sea; higher than the Column Vendome, which perpetuates the triumphs of Napoleon on the land; higher than the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge, which exhibit the latest and greatest results of science, invention, and industrial progress, this structure rises toward the heavens to illustrate an idea ... which inspired the charter in the cabin of the Mayflower and the Declaration of Independence from the Continental Congress.
Speech at unveiling of the Statue of Liberty, New York. In E.S. Werner (ed.), Werner's Readings and Recitations (1908), 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte (20)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Brooklyn Bridge (2)  |  Charter (4)  |  Column (15)  |  Commemorate (3)  |  Congress (20)  |  Declaration (10)  |  Declaration Of Independence (5)  |  Dwarf (7)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Higher (37)  |  Idea (881)  |  Industrial (15)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Invention (400)  |  Mighty (13)  |  Monument (45)  |  Perpetuate (11)  |  Pigmy (4)  |  Progress (492)  |  Result (700)  |  Rise (169)  |  Sea (326)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Square (73)  |  Statue (17)  |  Statue Of Liberty (2)  |  Structure (365)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tower (45)  |  Trafalgar (2)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Victory (40)

But if the two countries or governments are at war, the men of science are not. That would, indeed be a civil war of the worst description: we should rather, through the instrumentality of the men of science soften the asperities of national hostility.
Davy's remarks to Thomas Poole on accepting Napoleon's prize for the best experiment on Galvanism.
Quoted in Gavin de Beer, The Sciences were Never at War (1960), 204.
Science quotes on:  |  Accepting (22)  |  Best (467)  |  Civil (26)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Galvanism (9)  |  Government (116)  |  Hostility (16)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Through (846)  |  Two (936)  |  War (233)  |  Worst (57)

Descartes … commanded the future from his study more than Napoleon from his throne.
Paraphrased from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Montesquieu: A Critical and Biographical Introduction to “The Spirit of the Laws” (1900), xiv. The context referred to “Montesquieu … a lonely scholar sitting in a library. Like Descartes or Kant, he commanded the future from his study more than Napoléon from his throne.”
Science quotes on:  |  Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte (20)  |  Command (60)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Future (467)  |  More (2558)  |  Study (701)  |  Throne (8)

If there is an underlying oneness of all things, it does not matter where we begin, whether with stars, or laws of supply and demand, or frogs, or Napoleon Bonaparte. One measures a circle, beginning anywhere.
Lo! (1931, 1941), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Anywhere (16)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte (20)  |  Circle (117)  |  Demand (131)  |  Frog (44)  |  Law (913)  |  Matter (821)  |  Measure (241)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Oneness (6)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Supply (100)  |  Supply And Demand (4)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Underlying (33)

If you ask me whether science has solved, or is likely to solve, the problem of this universe, I must shake my head in doubt. We have been talking of matter and force; but whence came matter, and whence came force? You remember the first Napoleon’s question, when the savans who accompanied him to Egypt discussed in his presence the problem of the universe, and solved it to their apparent satisfaction. He looked aloft to the starry heavens, and said—“It is all very well, gentlemen, but who made all these!” That question still remains unanswered, and science makes no attempt to answer it.
Lecture 'On Matter and Force', to nearly 3,000 working men, at the Dundee Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (Sep 1867), reported in 'Dundee Meeting, 1867', Chemical News and Journal of Physical Science (Nov 1867)
Science quotes on:  |  Accompany (22)  |  Aloft (5)  |  Answer (389)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Ask (420)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte (20)  |  Discuss (26)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Egypt (31)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Head (87)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Look (584)  |  Make (25)  |  Matter (821)  |  Must (1525)  |  Presence (63)  |  Problem (731)  |  Question (649)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remember (189)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Shake (43)  |  Solve (145)  |  Star (460)  |  Still (614)  |  Talk (108)  |  Talking (76)  |  Unanswered (8)  |  Universe (900)

In the 1860s, Pasteur not only applied his germ theory to create “Pasteurization,” rescuing France’s wine and vinegar industries, but also found both the cause and cure of silkworm disease, saving growers millions of dollars. When Napoleon asked the scientist why he had not legitimately profited by his findings, Pasteur replied: “In France scientists would consider they lowered themselves by doing so.”
In Jacques Cousteau and Susan Schiefelbein, The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World (2007), 190.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Ask (420)  |  Boneparte_Napoleon (2)  |  Both (496)  |  Cause (561)  |  Consider (428)  |  Create (245)  |  Cure (124)  |  Discover (571)  |  Disease (340)  |  Doing (277)  |  Dollar (22)  |  France (29)  |  Germ (54)  |  Germ Theory (2)  |  Industry (159)  |  Legitimate (26)  |  Lower (11)  |  Million (124)  |  Louis Pasteur (85)  |  Profit (56)  |  Reply (58)  |  Rescue (14)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Silkworm (2)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Vinegar (7)  |  Why (491)  |  Wine (39)

It was the German schoolhouse which destroyed Napoleon III. France, since then, is making monster cannon and drilling soldiers still, but she is also building schoolhouses.
Louis Klopsch, Many Thoughts of Many Minds (1896), 77.
Science quotes on:  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Cannon (3)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Drill (12)  |  Education (423)  |  France (29)  |  German (37)  |  Making (300)  |  Monster (33)  |  Soldier (28)  |  Still (614)

Kant … commanded the future from his study more than Napoleon from his throne.
Paraphrased from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Montesquieu: A Critical and Biographical Introduction to “The Spirit of the Laws” (1900), xiv. The context referred to “Montesquieu … a lonely scholar sitting in a library. Like Descartes or Kant, he commanded the future from his study more than Napoléon from his throne.”
Science quotes on:  |  Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte (20)  |  Command (60)  |  Future (467)  |  Immanuel Kant (50)  |  More (2558)  |  Study (701)  |  Throne (8)

Napoleon and other great men were makers of empires, but these eight men whom I am about to mention were makers of universes and their hands were not stained with the blood of their fellow men. I go back 2,500 years and how many can I count in that period? I can count them on the fingers of my two hands. Pythagoras, Ptolemy, Kepler, Copernicus, Aristotle, Galileo, Newton and Einstein—and I still have two fingers left vacant.
Speech (28 Oct 1930) at the Savoy Hotel, London in Einstein’s honor sponsored by a committee to help needy Jews in Eastern Europe. In Albert Einstein, Cosmic Religion: With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931), 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Back (395)  |  Blood (144)  |  Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte (20)  |  Nicolaus Copernicus (54)  |  Count (107)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Empire (17)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Finger (48)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Great (1610)  |  Johannes Kepler (95)  |  Maker (34)  |  Mention (84)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Ptolemy (19)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Still (614)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)  |  Year (963)

Napoleon: M. Laplace, they tell me you have written this large book [Système du Monde] on the system of the universe, and have never even mentioned its Creator.
Laplace: I have no need for this hypothesis. (Je n’avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là.)
Quoted in Augustus De Morgan, Budget of Paradoxes (1915), Vol. 2, 2-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Biography (254)  |  Book (413)  |  Creator (97)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Large (398)  |  Mention (84)  |  Never (1089)  |  System (545)  |  Tell (344)  |  Universe (900)

Such instances of the almost infinite unpredictability of man are known to social scientists, but they are no more affected by them than the asylum inmate is by being told that he is not Napoleon.
In Science is a Sacred Cow (1950), 156.
Science quotes on:  |  Asylum (5)  |  Being (1276)  |  Boneparte_Napoleon (2)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Inmate (3)  |  Instance (33)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Science (37)  |  Unpredictability (7)

The discovery of the famous original [Rosetta Stone] enabled Napoleon’s experts to begin the reading of Egypt’s ancient literature. In like manner the seismologists, using the difficult but manageable Greek of modern physics, are beginning the task of making earthquakes tell the nature of the earth’s interior and translating into significant speech the hieroglyphics written by the seismograph.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Egypt (31)  |  Expert (67)  |  Geology (240)  |  Greek (109)  |  Hieroglyphic (6)  |  Interior (35)  |  Literature (116)  |  Making (300)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Physics (23)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Rosetta Stone (4)  |  Seismograph (4)  |  Seismologist (2)  |  Significant (78)  |  Speech (66)  |  Stone (168)  |  Task (152)  |  Tell (344)  |  Translate (21)  |  Write (250)

The excremental is all too intimately and inseparably bound up with the sexual; the position of the genitals—inter urinas et faeces—remains the decisive and unchangeable factor. One might say here, varying a well-known saying of the great Napoleon: 'Anatomy is destiny'.
On the Universal Tendency to Debasement in the Sphere of Love (Contributions to the Psychology of Love) (1912), In James Strachey (ed.), The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (1957), Vol 11, 189.
Science quotes on:  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Bound (120)  |  Decisive (25)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Genitals (2)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inter (12)  |  Known (453)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  Remain (355)  |  Say (989)  |  Sexual (27)

This quality of genius is, sometimes, difficult to be distinguished from talent, because high genius includes talent. It is talent, and something more. The usual distinction between genius and talent is, that one represents creative thought, the other practical skill: one invents, the other applies. But the truth is, that high genius applies its own inventions better than talent alone can do. A man who has mastered the higher mathematics, does not, on that account, lose his knowledge of arithmetic. Hannibal, Napoleon, Shakespeare, Newton, Scott, Burke, Arkwright, were they not men of talent as well as men of genius?
In 'Genius', Wellman’s Miscellany (Dec 1871), 4, No. 6, 203.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Alone (324)  |  Apply (170)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Sir Richard Arkwright (3)  |  Better (493)  |  Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte (20)  |  Edmund Burke (14)  |  Creative (144)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  Genius (301)  |  High (370)  |  Include (93)  |  Invention (400)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lose (165)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  Mastery (36)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Other (2233)  |  Practical (225)  |  Quality (139)  |  Represent (157)  |  Scott_Walter (2)  |  William Shakespeare (109)  |  Skill (116)  |  Something (718)  |  Talent (99)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truth (1109)

When he had a few moments for diversion, he [Napoleon] not unfrequently employed them over a book of logarithms, in which he always found recreation.
In Napoleon Bonaparte (1904), Vol. 1, chap. 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte (20)  |  Book (413)  |  Diversion (10)  |  Employ (115)  |  Find (1014)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Logarithm (12)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Moment (260)  |  Recreation (23)


Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:
Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | 1 | 2 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Thank you for sharing.
- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


by Ian Ellis
who invites your feedback
Thank you for sharing.
Today in Science History
Sign up for Newsletter
with quiz, quotes and more.