Napoleon would be 253 today!

Below is a small collage of information I have collected on Napoleon over the years. Where I know the source I have quoted it.

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769, in Ajaccio, on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. He was the second of eight surviving children born to Carlo Buonaparte (1746-1785), a lawyer, and Letizia Romalino Buonaparte (1750-1836).

“Courage isn’t having the strength to go on – it is going on when you don’t have strength.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte

Taken from https://www.napoleon.org/en/young-historians/napodoc/napoleon-i-and-his-family/

“In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte

The famous image of Napoleon crossing the Alps hanging in the Louvre, Paris. On visiting this in 1997 I was amazed by its physical size!

“History is a set of lies agreed upon.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte

“History is written by the winners.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte

DID YOU KNOW 1: Napoleon wrote a romance novella. Behind the ruthless, battle-hardened facade, Napoleon was a bit of a softie, as both his embarrassingly soppy love letters and a recently unearthed romantic novella prove. Penned in 1795, when Napoleon was 26, Clisson et Eugénie is a brief (just 17 pages) exercise in sentimental self-mythologising that, according to most reviews, fails to establish him as a lost literary genius!

DID YOU KNOW 2: Napoleon’s first wife Josephine was previously married to an aristocrat beheaded in the reign of terror and narrowly avoided the guillotine herself!

DID YOU KNOW 3: Napoleon is reported to have suffered from Ailurophobia although there is no positive evidence that this common story is true.

“Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte

“You don’t reason with intellectuals. You shoot them.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte (from his memoirs)

“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action comes, stop thinking and go in.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte

DID YOU KNOW 4: Napoleon has become synonymous with shortness. Indeed, the term “Napoleon complex”, used to characterise short, overly aggressive people, is conceptually bound to his famously diminutive stature. But in fact, at the time of his death, Napoleon measured 5 feet 2 inches in French units — the equivalent of 5 feet 6.5 inches in modern measurement units — which was a distinctly average height at the time.

“The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies”
― Napoleon Bonaparte

“If you want something done well do it yourself.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte

“Circumstances-what are circumstances? I make circumstances”
― Napoleon Bonaparte

DID YOU KNOW 5: Napoleons cause of death is uncertain.

Napoleon died, aged 51, on the island of Saint Helena after a long, unpleasant illness. The cause of this illness has never been conclusively established, however, and his death remains a subject surrounded by conspiracy theories and speculation. The official cause of death was recorded as stomach cancer, but some claim foul play was involved. Indeed, claims that he was in fact poisoned appear to be supported by analysis of hair samples that show a far higher than normal concentration of arsenic. Although it is also contended that arsenic was present in the wallpaper of his bedroom and in the cologne that he was famous for using.