The Man of Destiny quotes

He has prodigious powers of work, and a clear, realistic knowledge of human nature in public affairs, having seen it exhaustively tested in that department during the French Revolution.

He is imaginative without illusions, and creative without religion, loyalty, patriotism or any of the common ideals.

Not that he is incapable of these ideals: on the contrary, he has swallowed them all in his boyhood, and now, having a keen dramatic faculty, is extremely clever at playing upon them by the arts of the actor and stage manager.

I am such a general. En avant, mes enfants!” The result has entirely justified him.

The army conquers Italy as the locusts conquered Cyprus.

They fight all day and march all night, covering impossible distances and appearing in incredible places, not because every soldier carries a field marshal’s baton in his knapsack, but because he hopes to carry at least half a dozen silver forks there next day.

Every man to his trade, excellency. We innkeepers have plenty of cheap wine: we think nothing of spilling it. You great generals have plenty of cheap blood: you think nothing of spilling it. Is it not so, excellency?

Blood costs nothing: wine costs money.

He rises and goes to the fireplace.

They say you are careful of everything except human life, excellency.

Human life, my friend, is the only thing that takes care of itself.

He throws himself at his ease on the couch.

There is only one universal passion: fear. Of all the thousand qualities a man may have, the only one you will find as certainly in the youngest drummer boy in my army as in me, is fear.

It is fear that makes men fight: it is indifference that makes them run away: fear is the mainspring of war.

Fear! I know fear well, better than you, better than any woman. I once saw a regiment of good Swiss soldiers massacred by a mob in Paris because I was afraid to interfere:

With conviction. Because you would have wanted my letter enough to bear your fear.

There is only one universal passion: fear.

Of all the thousand qualities a man may have, the only one you will find as certainly in the youngest drummer boy in my army as in me, is fear. It is fear that makes men fight: it is indifference that makes them run away:

Pooh! there’s no such thing as a real hero. He strolls down the room, making light of her enthusiasm, but by no means displeased with himself for having evoked it.

Ah, yes, there is. There is a difference between what you call my bravery and yours.

You wanted to win the battle of Lodi for yourself and not for anyone else, didn’t you?

With deep melancholy. Do you think that if I only wanted those despatches for myself, I dare venture into a battle for them? No: if that were all, I should not have the courage to ask to see you at your hotel, even.

My courage is mere slavishness: it is of no use to me for my own purposes.

It is only through love, through pity, through the instinct to save and protect someone else, that I can do the things that terrify me.

Again relaxing her attitude with a sigh.

Ah, it is easy to see that you have never tried it, General.

Indignantly, forgetting all about Brutus and Scipio. What do you mean by that speech, madam?

Indignantly, forgetting all about Brutus and Scipio. What do you mean by that speech, madam?

Haven’t you noticed that people always exaggerate the value of the things they haven’t got?

The poor think they only need riches to be quite happy and good. Everybody worships truth, purity, unselfishness, for the same reason—because they have no experience of them. Oh, if they only knew!

With her arms stretched down and her hands clasped on her knees, looking straight before her.

Yes. I had the misfortune to be born good.

Glancing up at him for a moment. And it is a misfortune, I can tell you, General. I really am truthful and unselfish and all the rest of it; and it’s nothing but cowardice; want of character; want of being really, strongly, positively oneself.

Earnestly, with rising enthusiasm.

What is the secret of your power? Only that you believe in yourself.

You can fight and conquer for yourself and for nobody else. You are not afraid of your own destiny. You teach us what we all might be if we had the will and courage;

Hm! Nothing worse than that? He takes up the paper.

Happiness, little woman, is the most tedious thing in the world to me. Should I be what I am if I cared for happiness?

Anything else?

Shaking his head. That will never do, Lieutenant.

In this wicked world a general may send for a lieutenant; but a lieutenant must not send for a general.

Oh, you think he wouldn’t like it. Well, perhaps you’re right: one has to be awfully particular about that sort of thing now we’ve got a republic.

Promptly.

Make him a general, excellency; and then everything he says will be right.

Crowing. Haw-aw! He throws himself ecstatically on the couch to enjoy the joke.

Then the organist at Melegnano wanted to make a man of me by teaching me to read music. The recruiting sergeant would have made a man of me if I had been a few inches taller.

But it always meant making me work; and I am too lazy for that, thank Heaven!

So I taught myself to cook and became an innkeeper; and now I keep servants to do the work, and have nothing to do myself except talk, which suits me perfectly.

Shaking his head rapidly and repeatedly. No, thank you, General.

All my life long people have wanted to make a man of me.

When I was a boy, our good priest wanted to make a man of me by teaching me to read and write. Then the organist at Melegnano wanted to make a man of me by teaching me to read music.

Indignantly. I am neither mean nor selfish.

Oh, you don’t appreciate yourself. Besides, I don’t really mean meanness and selfishness.

Thank you. I thought perhaps you did.

Abruptly. Where did you pick up all these vulgar scruples—this with contemptuous emphasis conscience of yours? I took you for a lady—an aristocrat. Was your grandfather a shopkeeper, pray?

No: he was an Englishman.

That accounts for it. The English are a nation of shopkeepers. Now I understand why you’ve beaten me.

and he sells the children of his poor at six years of age to work under the lash in his factories for sixteen hours a day. He makes two revolutions, and then declares war on our one in the name of law and order.

There is nothing so bad or so good that you will not find Englishmen doing it; but you will never find an Englishman in the wrong.

He does everything on principle. He fights you on patriotic principles; he robs you on business principles; he enslaves you on imperial principles; he bullies you on manly principles; he supports his king on loyal principles, and cuts off his king’s head on republican principles.

He makes two revolutions, and then declares war on our one in the name of law and order. There is nothing so bad or so good that you will not find Englishmen doing it; but you will never find an Englishman in the wrong.

He does everything on principle. He fights you on patriotic principles; he robs you on business principles; he enslaves you on imperial principles; he bullies you on manly principles; he supports his king on loyal principles, and cuts off his king’s head on republican principles.

His watchword is always duty; and he never forgets that the nation which lets its duty get on the opposite side to its interest is lost. He—