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قراءة كتاب Widger's Quotations from Project Gutenberg Edition of Memoirs of Napoleon

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Widger's Quotations from Project Gutenberg Edition of Memoirs of Napoleon

Widger's Quotations from Project Gutenberg Edition of Memoirs of Napoleon

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
الصفحة رقم: 5

proposing what he knew could not be honourably acceded to
Cause of war between the United States and England
Conquest can only be regarded as the genius of destruction
Demand everything, that you may obtain nothing
Submit to events, that he might appear to command them
Tendency to sell the skin of the bear before killing him
When a man has so much money he cannot have got it honestly
I have made sovereigns, but have not wished to be one myself
Go to England The English like wrangling politicians
Let women mind their knitting
A sect cannot be destroyed by cannon-balls
Every time we go to war with them we teach them how to beat us
God in his mercy has chosen Napoleon to be his representative on earth
The wish and the reality were to him one and the same thing
Treaties of peace no less disastrous than the wars
Yield to illusion when the truth was not satisfactory
Every one cannot be an atheist who pleases
Grew more angry as his anger was less regarded
I do not live—I merely exist
Strike their imaginations by absurdities than by rational ideas
Those who are free from common prejudices acquire others

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PRIVATE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BY JULES CONSTANT

 Private Life of Napoleon, V1, by Constant [NB#18][nc01v10.txt]3568
 Private Life of Napoleon, V2, by Constant [NB#19][nc02v10.txt]3569
 Private Life of Napoleon, V3, by Constant [NB#20][nc03v10.txt]3570
 Private Life of Napoleon, V4, by Constant [NB#21][nc04v10.txt]3571
 Private Life of Napoleon, V5, by Constant [NB#22][nc05v10.txt]3572
 Private Life of Napoleon, V6, by Constant [NB#23][nc06v10.txt]3573
 Private Life of Napoleon, V7, by Constant [NB#24][nc07v10.txt]3574
 Private Life of Napoleon, V8, by Constant [NB#25][nc08v10.txt]3575
 Private Life of Napoleon, V9, by Constant [NB#26][nc09v10.txt]3576
 Private Life of Napoleon, V10, by Constant [NB#27][nc10v10.txt]3577
 Private Life of Napoleon, V11, by Constant [NB#28][nc11v10.txt]3578
 Private Life of Napoleon, V12, by Constant [NB#29][nc12v10.txt]3579
 Complete Life of Napoleon, V13, by Constant[NB#30][nc13v10.txt]3580

PRIVATE LIFE OF NAPOLEON, V1, by Constant [nc01v10.txt]3568

"To paint Caesar in undress is not to paint Caesar," some one has said. Yet men will always like to see the great 'en deshabille'. In these volumes the hero is painted in undress. His foibles, his peculiarities, his vices, are here depicted without reserve. But so also are his kindness of heart, his vast intellect, his knowledge of men, his extraordinary energy, his public spirit. The shutters are taken down, and the workings of the mighty machinery are laid bare.

Never did poet or novelist imagine scenes so improbable. The son of an obscure lawyer in an unimportant island becomes Emperor of the French and King of Italy. His brothers and sisters become kings and queens. The sons of innkeepers, notaries; lawyers, and peasants become marshals of the empire. The Emperor, first making a West India Creole his wife and Empress, puts her away, and marries a daughter of the haughtiest and oldest royal house in Europe, the niece of a queen whom the people of France had beheaded a few years before. Their son is born a king—King of Rome. Then suddenly the pageantry dissolves, and Emperor, kings, and queens become subjects again.

The old woman who met him incognito climbing the hill of Tarare, and replying to his assertion that "Napoleon was only a tyrant like the rest," exclaimed, "It may be so, but the others are the kings of the nobility, while he is one of us, and we have chosen him ourselves,"

Attached to the person of the Emperor Napoleon for fifteen years, I have seen all the men, and witnessed all the important events, which centered around him. I have seen far more than that; for I have had under my eyes all the circumstances of his life, the least as well as the greatest, the most secret as well as those which are known to history

PRIVATE LIFE OF NAPOLEON, V2, by Constant [nc02v10.txt]3569

He admitted, however, notwithstanding all his jokes, that he had never thought himself so near death, and that he felt as if he had been dead for a few seconds. I do not remember whether it was on this or another occasion that I heard the Emperor say, that "death was only asleep without dreams."

Mademoiselle Hortense was extremely pretty, with an expressive and mobile countenance, and in addition to this was graceful, talented, and affable. Kindhearted and amiable like her mother, she had not that excessive desire to oblige which sometimes detracted from Madame Bonaparte's character.

About this time she inspired a most violent passion in a gentleman of a very good family, who was, I think, a little deranged before this mad love affected his brain. This poor unfortunate roamed incessantly around Malmaison; and as soon as Mademoiselle Hortense left the house, ran by the side of her carriage with the liveliest demonstrations of tenderness, and threw through the window flowers, locks of his hair, and verses of his own composition. When he met Mademoiselle Hortense on foot, he threw himself on his knees before her with a thousand passionate gestures, addressing her in most endearing terms, and followed her, in spite of all opposition, even into the courtyard of the chateau, and abandoned himself to all kinds of folly.

The Archbishop of Milan had come to Lyons, notwithstanding his great age, in order to see the First Consul, whom he loved with such tenderness that in conversation the venerable old man continually addressed the young general as "my son." The peasants of Pavia, having revolted because their fanaticism had been excited by false assertions that the French wished to destroy their religion, the Archbishop of Milan, in order to prove that their fears were groundless, often showed himself in a carriage with General Bonaparte.

The celebration of this sacrament at Notre Dame was a novel sight to the Parisians, and many attended as if it were a theatrical representation. Many, also, especially amongst the military, found it rather a matter of raillery than of edification; and those who, during the Revolution, had contributed all their strength to the overthrow of the worship which the First Consul had just re-established, could with difficulty conceal their indignation and their chagrin.

"Why did you quit the service?" resumed the First Consul, who appeared to take great interest in the conversation.—"My faith, General, each one in his turn, and there are saber strokes enough for every one. One fell on me there " (the worthy laborer bent his head and divided the locks of his hair); "and after some weeks in the field hospital, they gave me a discharge to return to my wife and my plow."

PRIVATE LIFE OF NAPOLEON, V3, by Constant [nc03v10.txt]3570

Her sudden appearance astonished, and even alarmed, Roustan and myself; for it was only an extraordinary circumstance which could have induced Madame Bonaparte to leave her room in this costume, before taking all necessary precautions to conceal the damage which the want of the accessories of the toilet did her. She entered, or rather rushed, into the room, crying, "The Duke d'Enghien is dead! Ah, my friend! what have you done?" Then she fell sobbing into the arms of the First Consul, who became pale as death, and said with extraordinary emotion, "The miserable wretches have been too quick!" He then left the room, supporting Madame Bonaparte, who could hardly walk, and was still weeping. The news of the prince's death spread

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