# Napoleon  ## Metadata - Author: [[Adam Zamoyski]] - Full Title: Napoleon - Category: #napoleonic-campaigns ## Highlights - During that time he would learn French well enough to carry on a conversation and to write a simple essay, but he did not, then or ever, learn the language well, and his grammar and use of words remained poor. His handwriting never developed beyond an ugly scrawl. ([Location 509](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B079L47ZZX&location=509)) - On 21 April, after an emotional farewell to Joseph, the nine-year-old Napoleone set off on his military career. ([Location 519](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B079L47ZZX&location=519)) - What did set Napoleone apart from his peers was his application and his intellectual curiosity. ([Location 568](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B079L47ZZX&location=568)) - The small-town struggles for power in Corsica had taught him that subterfuge, cheating, treachery, and brute force were the only effective means of achieving a goal in politics. ([Location 1318](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B079L47ZZX&location=1318)) - The eighteenth century had seen the gradual replacement of the Christian view of life as a preparation for the next world with one which envisaged ways of attaining fulfilment in this. The French Revolution was born largely from the desire to reorder the world in this sense. The rejection of Christianity had suggested a return to the world of ancient Greece and Rome, which seemed more in tune with the republican ideals of the day. ([Location 2277](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B079L47ZZX&location=2277)) - Finding all the seats taken, Masséna ousted a prelate from his chair with a ‘Go fuck yourself!’ His comrades followed suit and began cracking jokes and were only silenced by a glare from the first consul. ([Location 5497](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B079L47ZZX&location=5497)) - Whatever people thought of it, the Napoleonic regime delivered stability and prosperity, and that was what most people wanted. Yet he seemed to be gradually losing sight of that crucial fact, and his vision was beginning to diverge from that of the majority of his subjects. ([Location 7322](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B079L47ZZX&location=7322))