The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte - Robert Asprey  ## Metadata - Author: **Robert Asprey** - Full Title: The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte - Category: #books ## Highlights - 1792 *. . . the revolution is the mistress of the hour. One cannot* *struggle against it, one must accommodate one’s self to it.* Napoleon to Alexander des Mazis, Paris, August 1792[1](private://read/01k0pwdmh7xy0v87916gq6t6q7/#fnt_14-0) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k1jrte5wacb51xfbxxhegvbf)) - *My conscience is the tribunal which judges my conduct. This* *conscience is calm when I question it.* Napoleon writing from his jail cell to Andoche Junot, Fort Carré, Antibes, August 1794[1](private://read/01k0pwdmh7xy0v87916gq6t6q7/#fnt_19-0) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k1ndcxvrg8p4rn2ab5pycg4p)) - *I awake full of you, your face, our intoxicating evening, have* *excited all my senses . . . I take from your lips, from your heart* *a scalding flame . . .* Mio dolce amore*, a million kisses, but* *give none to me for they set my blood on fire.* Napoleon to Joséphine, Paris, *c*. December 1795[1](private://read/01k0pwdmh7xy0v87916gq6t6q7/#fnt_20-0) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k1neeydm11s4bmvbbmvqgpj4)) - “Soldiers, you are ill-clothed, poorly fed; the government owes you much, it has given you nothing . . . I will lead you to the richest plains in the world. Rich provinces and great cities will be in your power; you will find there honor, glory and riches.”[13](private://read/01k0pwdmh7xy0v87916gq6t6q7/#fnt_21-11) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k1r009z6y5f8be2ygp2s1qd8)) - [her] small shoulder, a small white breast soft but firm; above that a small head bound with a kerchief *à la Créole*, good enough to eat. You know well that I do not forget the small visits; you know well, the little black forest. I give you a thousand kisses and impatiently await the moment to be there . . . To live inside a Joséphine is to live in paradise. To kiss the mouth, eyes, shoulder, breast, everywhere, everywhere.[3](private://read/01k0pwdmh7xy0v87916gq6t6q7/#fnt_28-2) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k22bewxy790dxgnffcex3x9w)) - There is no one here who does not regard [Napoleon] as a man of genius. He commands a great ascendancy over the individuals of the republican army . . . His tactical perception is sure. He carries out his resolutions with energy and strength. His coolness in the most lively actions is as remarkable as his extreme readiness to change his plans when unforeseen circumstances demand it.[9](private://read/01k0pwdmh7xy0v87916gq6t6q7/#fnt_28-7) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k22bnbkaqdxr6gq1qg6yjdrg)) - Napoleon did not need a council of war to make his grisly decision any more than he needed one before ordering scores of Egyptian villages burned, or thousands of recalcitrant natives shot or beheaded, or hundreds of children taken from their parents. He was a man of mission and anybody or anything that got in his way was fair game for whatever force he mustered. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k27feydnv2h4y86vevbr7zna)) - A student of Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan, Napoleon had used terror tactics when necessary ever since landing in Egypt – he had used them in Italy as well. In his mind terror was a weapon. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k27fekqka8ycht4y7zcemeqz)) - It is advisable for you to know that all human efforts are useless against me because everything I undertake has to succeed . . . The example offered by Jaffa and Gaza should make you understand that, if I am terrible to my enemies I am good to my friends, and above all mild and merciful with the poor people.[16](private://read/01k0pwdmh7xy0v87916gq6t6q7/#fnt_36-14) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k27ff580p43w9pgqhq3qg8c2))