In my own case it’s taken me years to cultivate self-control to prevent my emotions from betraying themselves. Only a short time ago I was the conqueror of the world, commanding the largest and finest army of modern times. That’s all gone now! To think I kept all my composure, I might even say preserved my unvarying high spirits … You don’t think that my heart is less sensitive than those of other men. I’m a very kind man but since my earliest youth I have devoted myself to silencing that chord within me that never yields a sound now. If anyone told me when I was about to begin a battle that my mistress whom I loved to distraction was breathing her last, it would leave me cold. Yet my grief would be just as great as if I had the time. Without this self-control, do you think I could have done all I’ve done?
~ Napoleon (in a letter to Louis-Mathieu Mole)
Source: “Napoleon, A Life” by Andrew Roberts (An Amazon Best Book of the Month, November, 2014) via Leading Blog
Reblogged this on hocuspocus13 and commented:
jinxx xoxo
Thanks for sharing.
🎄🎄🎄
But did you live life fully behind all of that control. Was something lost in the process? I think so.
He just summed up his whole life in the last sentence. So, we are our CHOICES.
Ya know, ole Napoleon is not someone I’ve ever had a yen to share coffee or a pint with–now I know why….
And for all he had done, isn’t it interesting that his greatest claim to game is his height (or lack thereof), i.e., the Napoleon Complex?
The latest from historians is that Napoleon was not 5ft 2in but 5ft 6in, which was quite tall for his day!
Interesting. I would have bet that he was shorter than 5′ 2″, thanks for sharing.
L’âme de l’homme se retrouve dans ses émotions. Man’s soul is found in his emotions.
Yes, so true.
This sounds like a good book.
900+ pages. I’m thinking about picking it up.
I read The Josephine B Trilogy (Sandra Gulland) and found it fascinating.
Fascinating on many levels!
Yes, this explains a lot.
To die to oneself is to die prematurely while one still lives.