Quotes by Emperors - Page 5

For the nearer everything is unto unpassionateness, the nearer it is unto power. And as grief doth proceed from weakness, so doth anger. For both, both he that is angry and grieveth, have received a wound, and cowardly have as it were yielded themselves unto their affections... For it was ordained unto holiness and godliness, which specially consist in an humble submission to God and His providence in all things; as well as unto justice: these also being part of those duties, which as naturally sociable, we are bound unto; and with without which we cannot happily converse one with another: yea and the very ground and fountain indeed of all just actions.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present - I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?
Marcus Aurelius
I am surrounded by priests who repeat incessantly that their kingdom is not of this world, and yet they lay hands on everything they can get.
Napoléon Bonaparte
A man's palate can in time become accustomed to anything.
Napoleon
The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to destiny.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Men take only their needs into consideration never their abilities.
Napoléon Bonaparte
In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Swift waters parted by the jagged rocks are joined at river's end. / 瀬をはやみ 岩にせかるる 滝川の われても末に あはむとぞ思ふ
Emperor Sutoku
It requires more courage to suffer than to die.
Napoleon
Regain your senses, call yourself back, and once again wake up. Now that you realize that only dreams were troubling you, view this 'reality' as you view your dreams.
Marcus Aurelius
With audacity one can undertake anything.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Without a purpose nothing should be done.
Marcus Aurelius
It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from his own badness, which is indeed possible, but to fly from other men's badness, which is impossible.
Marcus Aurelius
Men of learning in Milan have not enjoyed proper respect. They hid themselves in their laboratories and thought themselves lucky if . . . priests left them alone. All is changed today. Thought in Italy is free. Inquisition, intolerance, despots have vanished. I invite scholars to meet and propose what must be done to give science and the arts a new flowering.
Napoléon Bonaparte
striid andWthdraw into yourself. Our master-reason asks no more than to act justly, and thereby to achieve calm.
Marcus Aurelius
If they want peace nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon-shots.
Napoleon
Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise.
Marcus Aurelius
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
Marcus Aurelius
If we could survive without a wife, citizens of Rome, all of us would do without that nuisance; but since nature has so decreed that we cannot manage comfortably with them, nor live in any way without them, we must plan for our lasting preservation rather than for our temporary pleasure.
Augustus
Things of themselves cannot touch the soul at all. They have no entry to the soul, and cannot turn or move it. The soul alone turns and moves itself, making all externals presented to it cohere with the judgements it thinks worthy of itself.
Marcus Aurelius
The art of governing consists in not letting men grow old in their jobs.
Napoléon Bonaparte
History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Humans have come into being for the sake of each other, so either teach them, or learn to bear them.
Marcus Aurelius
The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.
Marcus Aurelius
All of us are creatures of a day; the rememberer and the remembered alike. All is ephemeral—both memory and the object of memory. The time is at hand when you will have forgotten everything; and the time is at hand when all will have forgotten you. Always reflect that soon you will be no one, and nowhere.
Marcus Aurelius
Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together,but do so with all your heart.
Marcus Aurelius
Soldiers forty centuries are looking down upon you from these pyramids.
Napoleon
If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Victory belongs to the most persevering.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Circumstances-what are circumstances? I make circumstances.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Hasten slowly.
Augustus Caesar
If you start to take Vienna - take Vienna.
Napoléon Bonaparte
The blazing fire makes flames and brightness out of everything thrown into it.
Marcus Aurelius
Be like a rocky promontory against which the restless surf continually pounds; it stands fast while the churning sea is lulled to sleep at its feet. I hear you say, "How unlucky that this should happen to me!" Not at all! Say instead, "How lucky that I am not broken by what has happened and am not afraid of what is about to happen. The same blow might have struck anyone, but not many would have absorbed it without capitulation or complaint.
Marcus Aurelius
What pulls the strings is the force hidden within there lies ... the real man.
Marcus Aurelius
Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to throw away. Death stands at your elbow. Be good for something while you live and it is in your power.
Marcus Aurelius
Look well into thyself there is a source which will always spring up if thou wilt always search there.
Marcus Aurelius
The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.
Napoléon Bonaparte
It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.
Napoléon Bonaparte
That which has died falls not out of the universe. If it stays here, it also changes here, and is dissolved into its proper parts, which are elements of the universe and of thyself. And these too change, and they murmur not".
Marcus Aurelius
All men are made one for another: either then teach them better or bear with them.
Marcus Aurelius
Every man is worth just so much as the things about which he busies himself.
Marcus Aurelius
There are two levers for moving man -- interest and fear.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Public instruction should be the first object of government.
Napoleon
How many really capable men are children more than once during the day?
Napoléon Bonaparte
A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.
Marcus Aurelius
What need of prompt or hint when it is open to yourself to discern what needs to be done - and, if you can see your way, to follow it with kind but undeviating intent. If you cannot see the way, hold back and consult your best advisors. if some other factors obstruct this advice, proceed on your present resources, but with cautious deliberations, keeping always to what seems just. Justice is the best aim, as any failure is in fact a failure of justice.A man following reason in all things combines relaxation with initiative, spark with composure.
Marcus Aurelius
A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.
Marcus Aurelius
A woman laughing is a woman conquered.
Napoléon Bonaparte
Our thoughts is what our life make it
Marcus Aurelius
When you are disturbed by events and lose your serenity, quickly return to yourself and don't stay upset longer than the experience lasts; for you'll have more mastery over your inner harmony by continually returning to it.
Marcus Aurelius
Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too.
Marcus Aurelius
The one thing worth living for is to keep one's soul pure.
Marcus Aurelius
If something is difficult for you to accomplish, do not then think it impossible for any human being; rather, if it is humanly possible and corresponds to human nature, know that it is attainable by you as well.
Marcus Aurelius