Did Napoleon say this?

January 27, 2006 4:57 AM

Did Napoleon ever say...

"In war and prosititution, hardworking amatures are better than professionals" or anything like it?

...and what's the very best most historical most personal most full of quotes Napoleon book I could buy?

posted by ewkpates to Education (10 answers total)

For the quote:

Wikiquote doesn't have anything
posted by slater at 5:55 AM on January 27, 2006

Extremely unlikely. See the discussion here, particularly my book recommendation. (From the Keyes book's section on Napoleon: "Napoleon frequently discussed his concepts of war but never recorded them.")
posted by languagehat at 6:06 AM on January 27, 2006

Best answer: This guy says yes.

An opinion piece from the Washington post also says yes.

I can't find a direct citation right now, but Google is the moral of the story.
posted by dsword at 7:08 AM on January 27, 2006

That was marked as best answer? "A couple of guys said so, and besides, you can google things"? I guess ewkpates wasn't actually interested in an answer. (Note to dsword: not everything you read on the internet is true, and that goes triple for quote attributions.)
posted by languagehat at 1:53 PM on January 27, 2006

I agree, which is why I mentioned that I couldn't find a (direct, I said, by which I meant reliable) citation. Furthermore, I responded to an email from the poster asking for clarification as to whether his question was, "Was it Napolean who said..." vs. "Did Napolean actually say..." Being unsure, I provided evidence to the former, while acknowledging that I was unable to answer the latter. I admit that it was early, I was going through my morning routine of drinking coffee and checking the morning internet-things, and I was feeling a bit lazy. I apologize for that.
posted by dsword at 1:20 AM on January 28, 2006

And also, I'm apparently in the habit of mispelling Napoleon tonight... which is strange, although it is late, and I have had a bit to drink.
posted by dsword at 1:22 AM on January 28, 2006

While I was basically ragging on the poster who marked yours as "best answer," I'm not thrilled with you either. Your "but Google is the moral of the story" is the complete opposite of the truth. The moral of the story is not to trust anyone who doesn't provide verifiable citations, which in this area means books like Bartlett's, not forchrissake Google, which is the equivalent of sticking your head out the window and asking whoever happens to be passing by.

Here's a "Boomer quiz" I googled up. Note #22: Said "Don't trust anyone over 30." Their "answer"? Bob Dylan. I rest my case.
posted by languagehat at 5:44 AM on January 28, 2006

Jesus, man, lighten up. I interpreted the question as casual, not as seeking a reference for use in scholarly writing--in part simply because of the nature of the quote. On top of that, it seemed to me that the poster hadn't tried looking for themselves. A comment such as, "I've found a few people quoting him, but I'd like to know the source," would have resulted in a different response. "Google is the moral of the story," meant "Try looking," and was a bit snarky.
posted by dsword at 12:28 PM on January 28, 2006

Also, I agree with what you posted in the Eisenhower thread, particularly the last bit.
posted by dsword at 12:33 PM on January 28, 2006

OK, I see where you're coming from now, and I retract, oh, 50% of my snark, but you've got to admit "Google is the moral" is not the best advice for a quotation question. I guess I get particularly touchy in AskMe threads because so many people (present company excluded) feel compelled to share whatever drifts through their brains at the moment even if they themselves realize it's unlikely to help the poster, they just like the sound of their own voice. But you're not one of those folks, so sorry if you caught some shrapnel.
posted by languagehat at 1:14 PM on January 28, 2006