How Napoleon dealt with older generals, soldiers sleeping on duty, and more

After an arduous battle, Napoleon "disguised himself in the dress of an inferior officer" and walked his camp. The camp's sentinel was asleep on the butt end of his gun. Napoleon gently put his head on the ground and "kept watch for him." The sentinel got off with a small rebuke.

Napoleon was made Commander-in-chief of the army of Italy at just 26. Old generals with far vaster experience reported to him. He had to constantly prove himself a "better man than any other" to keep his position at the top. He acted like a philosopher with "spotless morality."

Napoleon, a young commander in chief burdened and blessed with astounding power, could not afford a single mistake. He said: "Had I yielded to human weaknesses I should have lost my power."

Napoleon to his generals: "We must cut the enemy in pieces, precipitate ourselves, like a torrent, upon their battalions, & grind them to powder. Their experience will not avail them against me. Mark my words, they will soon burn their books on tactics, and know not what to do."

Napoleon wanted to inspire the French to excel at everything, including the arts. He had a f St. Jerome painting sent from Italy to Paris, and when a duke tried bribing him $200k to let them keep the painting, he said:

" The sum which he offers us will soon be spent ; but the possession of such a masterpiece at Paris will adorn that capital for ages, and give birth to similar exertions of genius." Surround yourself with examples of greatness, and they'll be the spark to your latent abilities.

Napoleon was greeted like a rockstar when passing through Switzerland in 1798. It must be nice to be so passionately admired, his colleague said. Napoleon:"Bah! This same unthinking crowd, under a slight change of circumstances, would follow me just as eagerly to the scaffold."

In his early career, Napoleon often dispersed mobs during the unstable revolutionary regime. An overweight fisherwoman was once stoking passion by asking people to not listen to soldiers who didn't care if the people starved. Napoleon, "thin as a shadow," said:

"Look at me, my good woman, and tell me which of us two is the fatter." This quick rhetorical victory endeared him to the mob, which then dispersed. While Napoleon had contempt for the "unthinking crowds," he understood them well enough to control them to his advantage.

If you enjoyed this memo, you will love the next one:

https://memod.com/jashdholani/napoleon-on-why-great-people-don-t-hate-6843

Napoleon on why great people don't hate Discover Napoleon's insights on success, what he read, and more.👇 Napoleon kne