Napoleon on how LOGIC loses wars and more

Introduction. Honoré de Balzac, one of the most prominent French writers of the 19th century, was a big admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte. He combed through hundreds of Napoleon speeches and public gazettes to collect his aphorisms on subjects ranging from politics to religion 👇

On freedom: "If one analyses it, political freedom is an accepted myth thought up by those governing to put the governed to sleep." Power is always concentrated at the top - different political systems and doctrines are merely different ways of hiding this fact.

On Equality: "Equality exists only in theory." No man-made political programs can reverse the innate inequality of nature: "Social law can give all men equal rights. Nature will never give them equal faculties."

For Napoleon, Monarchies are more efficient dispensers of justice than consent-based Democracies: "In the system of absolute power only one voice is necessary to rectify an injustice; in the assembly system five hundred are necessary."

On being too precautious: "The torment of precaution is worse than the dangers it seeks to avoid: it is better to abandon yourself to destiny." The compulsive need to preempt and predict all problems is its own type of hell.

Organized force is only beaten by another organized force: "Conspirators who come together to overthrow a tyranny start by submitting to that of their leader." Successful democratic movements have the hierarchical structure of monarchies - though perhaps not their ossification.

On revolutions :"There are inevitable revolutions. They are moral eruptions, like the physical eruption of volcanoes. When the chemical combinations that produce the latter are complete, they explode, just like revolutions do when the moral combinations are in place."

The young v/s the old: "In politics, young people are worth more than old people." Politics requires not just numbers, but loyal soldiers and energetic executioners of different policy programs. A good ruler effectively channels the zest of the young people of his country.

On religion: "Man's disquiet is such that he absolutely needs the vagueness and mystery than religion provides him." Napoleon strikes an existential note here. Man doesn't live by bread alone. Without the orienting - if vague - myths of religion, human hearts feel restless.

People who rely too much on logical systems lose wars: "There are men who, because of their physical and moral constitution, tend to schematize everything: whatever their knowledge, intellect, or courage, nature has not brought them here to command an army."