Quote
By Napoleon Bonaparte
The same consequences which have uniformly attended long discussions and councils of war, will follow at all times. They will terminate in the adoption of the worst course, which in war, is always the most timid, or if you will, the most prudent.
- Source
- The Officer's Manual: Military Maxims of Napoleon (translated from the French by Colonel D'Aguilar), 1831 · Maxim LXV, p. 52
- Read at
- Richard Milliken and Son, Dublin (Internet Archive scan of the 1831 edition)
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About this quote
Maxim LXV in The Officer's Manual: Military Maxims of Napoleon, translated from the French by Colonel D'Aguilar (Dublin: Richard Milliken and Son, 1831). The collection gathers maxims drawn from Napoleon's military writings, so this is a translator's English, not Napoleon's own French. The next maxim reads: "The only true wisdom in a general is determined courage."