History is a myth that men agree to believe.
Napoleon BonaparteRead
A man cannot become an atheist merely by wishing it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Belief cannot be changed by mere desire or wishful thinking.
Napoleon Bonaparte's quote highlights the idea that one's beliefs, particularly about existence and spirituality, are not simply a matter of wishful thinking. It emphasizes that belief systems are deeply rooted and cannot be altered just by the desire to change them; they often require a profound personal experience or intellectual reasoning.
Themes
BeliefAtheismPhilosophyWishingMindset
In practice
Example use cases
A speaker at a philosophy conference might use this quote to illustrate the complexities of belief systems.
More from Napoleon Bonaparte
All quotes βOne must indeed be ignorant of the methods of genius to suppose that it allows itself to be cramped by forms. Forms are for mediocrity, and it is fortunate that mediocrity can act only according to routine. Ability takes its flight unhindered.
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One can lead a nation only by helping it see a bright outlook. A leader is a dealer in hope.
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We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.
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Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.
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It is my wish that my ashes may repose on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people, whom I have loved so well.
Napoleon BonaparteRead
Similar quotes
When the calamity we feared is already arrived, or when the expectation of it is so certain as to shut out hope, there seems to be a principle within us by which we look with misanthropic composure on the state to which we are reduced, and the heart sullenly contracts and accommodates itself to what it most abhorred.
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Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is harmony in the house; when there is harmony in the house, there is order in the nation; when there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.
A. P. J. Abdul KalamRead
Human manners are wildly inconsistent; plenty of people have said so. But this one takes the cake: the manner in which we're allowed to steal from future generations, while commanding them not to do that to us, and rolling our eyes at anyone who is tediously PC enough to point that out. The conspicious consumption of limited resources has yet to be accepted widely as a spirtual error, or even bad manners.
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I don't know why people are so reluctant to say they're feminists. Could it be any more obvious that we still live in a patriarchal world when feminism is a bad word?
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I realised that the idea of enforcing sharia is not consistent with Islam as it's been practised from the beginning. In other words, Islam has always been secular, and I had been totally ignorant of the fact.
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A theologian is born by living, nay dying and being damned, not by thinking, reading, or speculating.
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