#432 The Mind of Napoleon

0:00This book is a selection of written and spoken utterances on a variety of subjects grouped according to broad themes and designed to give the reader an insight into the mind of a man who combined energy of thought and energy of action to an exceptional degree.

0:14Napoleon was a manipulator of things and men.

0:16For Napoleon, each thought is a step to an action.

0:20In Napoleon was a radiant power of the mind that cut through speculation, stripping all problems down to their simplest elements, discarding all obstacles to action.

0:30To his mind, inaction was unbearable.

0:35He said, work is my element.

0:37I am born and built for work.

0:39I have known the limitations of my legs.

0:41I have known the limitations of my eyes.

0:43I have never been able to know the limitations of my working capacity.

0:48Long before he played any political role, he had discarded whatever illusions might have prevented him from playing it.

0:53He knows that men have always been the same, that nothing can change their nature.

0:57It is from the past that he will draw his lessons in order to shape the present.