Spurred by a lifelong fascination with the Great Emperor, Honoré de Balzac set himself the painstaking task of collecting Napoleon's most notable maxims from his public speeches and contemporary gazettes. Divided into four parts—covering social life, the military arts, the exercise of power, and the teachings of experience and misfortune—Napoleon's pithy pills of wisdom range from Machiavellian to cynical, dry, and even cruel. Together they offer a unique insight into the mind of a man who prided himself on preferring action over thought and the sword over the pen, and conjure up one of the most eminent and influential historical figures of all time.