Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes in Waterloo (1970)

Napoleon Bonaparte: Never interrupt your enemy while he's making a mistake. That's bad manners.

[Observing the advance of the Gordon Highlanders]

Napoleon Bonaparte: Has Wellington nothing to offer me but these Amazons?

Michel Ney: Wellington's on the run! I caught him at Quatre Bras! He's retreating!

Napoleon Bonaparte: If Wellington's retreating, what are you doing here?

Michel Ney: But, Sire...

Napoleon Bonaparte: If Wellington's retreating, what are you doing here? Why didn't you follow him? Why didn't you pursue?

Michel Ney: [Raises voice] where are the reinforcements you promised me?

Napoleon Bonaparte: [shouting] Don't you dare criticize me! Don't you dare! Don't you see if Wellington's free to choose his ground then everything I've won in this campaign you've lost!

Gen. Drouot: [wounded on his horse] The Prussians are in the woods! Blucher is in the woods!

Napoleon Bonaparte: I made one mistake in my life; I should have burned Berlin.

[On Wellington's refusal to move]

Napoleon Bonaparte: [thinks to himself] This Englishman has two qualities I admire: caution, and above all, courage

[speaks up]

Napoleon Bonaparte: He hasn't moved, he's nailed himself to his ridge. Now's the time to move all the heavy artillery against Picton.

Napoleon Bonaparte: Cross the river. Tomorrow we will dry our boots in Brussels.

Michel Ney: God willing, sire.

Napoleon Bonaparte: God? God has nothing to do with it.

Napoleon Bonaparte: [watching the advance of troops in the distance] Prussians.

[Ney aims his own telescope]

Napoleon Bonaparte: That is not necessary, that is not necessary. They're Prussians, but as far as the army's concerned, they're on the moon. Understand?

Napoleon Bonaparte: Well they've done it! The whole of Europe has declared war against me! Not against France, but against me.

Le Bedoyere: They dignify you sire by making you a Nation!

Napoleon Bonaparte: [laughing] Dignify? Dignify? They deny me the decency of law! They make it legal that any clown can kill me.

Michel Ney: Well we've fought with mud in our boots before!

Napoleon Bonaparte: Yes well, I'll discuss peace over Wellington's dead body, that's my peace table!

Napoleon Bonaparte: Le Bedoyere, do you have any children?

Le Bedoyere: Yes, sire; one son, very young,no taller than your boot.

Napoleon Bonaparte: And if he were with you, would you want him with you here today?

Le Bedoyere: Yes, sire.

Napoleon Bonaparte: Yes, why?

Le Bedoyere: So he could see you, sire.

Napoleon Bonaparte: See me? You know, I have a son. I'd give anything in the world to see him. I'd give my heart, I'd give my life, but not here. I wouldn't want him to witness this battle here today.

Napoleon Bonaparte: When I am dead and gone what will the world say of me?

Le Bedoyere: They'll say that you extended the limits of glory, sire.

Napoleon Bonaparte: The limits of glory'; is that all I have to leave to my son, the 'limits of glory'?

Napoleon Bonaparte: [after the defeat of the Prussians at Ligny] The field of honor is never a pretty sight. Nevertheless, sixteen thousand Prussian dead; that's good news to slap on the walls in Paris, eh?

Napoleon Bonaparte: I can't believe my ears! You all stand before me waving a piece of paper crying 'Abdicate, abdicate!' I WILL NOT! I WILL NOT, NOT, NOT!

Napoleon Bonaparte: [in pain from the early stages of stomach cancer] My body is dying, but my mind is still good!

[Bonaparte is facing down Louis XVIII's artillery, unarmed]

Napoleon Bonaparte: Soldiers of the fifth. Do you recognise me?

[pause]

Napoleon Bonaparte: If you want to kill your Emperor? Here I am.

Napoleon Bonaparte: What's he doing? What's Ney doing? What's happening? Can't I leave the field for a minute? What's he doing there? How can a man go forward with the cavalry without infantry support? What's the matter with you?

Napoleon Bonaparte: [dictating a letter] To my dear Prince Alexis... I did not "usurp" the crown. I found it, in the gutter, and I, I picked it up with my sword, and it was the people, Alexis, the people who put it on my head. He who saves a nation violates no law.

Napoleon Bonaparte: I want my family to be well established. Joseph, particularly. The rest must wait until the victorious culmination of my campaign in Italy.

Desiree Clary: And you think you can do with people precisely what you want? That life is as you say it is?

Napoleon Bonaparte: Have you ever heard of a thing called destiny, Désirée?

[last lines]

Napoleon Bonaparte: I have a message for Sergeant Justin Bommell.

Gendarme: You wish to speak with him?

Napoleon Bonaparte: Just the message. And I'd like to leave this.

[puts a box on the counter; the gendarme looks inside and sees an Imperial Guard uniform]

Gendarme: You were here before, weren't you? I recognize you.

Napoleon Bonaparte: The message should read, "Eugene Lenormand is dead..."

[the gendarme starts to write]

Napoleon Bonaparte: No, not that.

[thinks for a moment]

Napoleon Bonaparte: "Eugene Lenormand... has moved on. He left this to remember him by."

Nicole 'Pumpkin' Truchaut: I bought it from a lawyer who went bankrupt.

Napoleon Bonaparte: Well, that's something. I didn't know that was possible.

[Napoleon slips outside Pumpkin's door and hits his head on the cobblestones]

Nicole 'Pumpkin' Truchaut: Sergeant! Sergeant Lenormand, are you all right? Can you hear me?

[No response]

Dr. Lambert: Listen to me. How many fingers can you see?

[No response]

Nicole 'Pumpkin' Truchaut: What is your name?

Napoleon Bonaparte: Emperor Napoleon.

Napoleon Bonaparte: Six years of English cooking... six years of staring at these dreary walls... and at your gloomy face. You're quite ugly, did you know that? I haven't had the heart to tell you.

Louis Marchand: Yes, sire.

Napoleon Bonaparte: I am Napoleon!

Nicole 'Pumpkin' Truchaut: No, you're not Napoleon! I hate Napoleon! He's filled France with widows and orphans! He took my husband! I won't let him take you.

Montholon: You will of course be traveling incognito...

Napoleon Bonaparte: Yes, of course incognito, but in what capacity will I be traveling?

Montholon: Uh... a galley hand.

[Napoleon glares]

Montholon: It is in the utmost need, Sire.

Napoleon Bonaparte: Even so, surely something above decks would have been more appropriate.

[first lines]

Napoleon Bonaparte: No, that's not it. That's not right. Let me tell you what really happened...

[Napoleon looks at his double, Eugene, a lowly deckhand - both characters played by Ian Holm]

Napoleon Bonaparte: What are we going to do?

Montholon: Sire?

Napoleon Bonaparte: Well, he looks *nothing* like me.

Napoleon Bonaparte: They've changed my battlefield.

Napoleon Bonaparte: I had rather sleep in the gutter than spend one night under an inhospitable roof!

Napoleon Bonaparte: I am a man who can be killed, but not insulted!

Napoleon Bonaparte: I am not Eugene! Eugene Lenormand is nothing! A nobody!

Nicole 'Pumpkin' Truchaut: He is everything to me.

Fouché: [Last lines] Robespierre planned on having statues built of himself. But all he leaves behind him... is stale bread.

Napoleon Bonaparte: [His face isn't shown] The end is always being put to some use in France, citizen. The art of being a Frenchman is knowing what comes next.

Fouché: Have you any idea?

Napoleon Bonaparte: I am neither a Frenchman nor a politician. I am merely a soldier.

Fouché: Well, my friend, I must be off. Perhaps we shall meet again some time.

Fouché: [stops, turns around] Oh, uh, by the way, I don't believe I got your name.

Napoleon Bonaparte: My name is Bonaparte. Napoleon Bonaparte.

Fouché: Napoleon Bonaparte. I'll try to remember that.