Napoleon’s apt replies often excited good humor in a crowd. A large and brawny fishwoman once was haranguing the mob, and telling them not to disperse. She finished by exclaiming, “Never mind those coxcombs with epaulets on their shoulders; they care not if we poor people all starve, if they but feed well and grow fat.”
Napoleon, who was as thin as a shadow, turned to her and said, “Look at me, my good woman, and tell me which of us two is the fatter.”
The fishfag was completely disconcerted, and the crowd dispersed.
1796. “Good God!” Napoleon said in Italy, while residing at Montebello, “how rare men are. There are eighteen millions in Italy, and I have with difficulty found two—Dandolo and Melzi.”
“Europe!” Napoleon exclaimed at Passeriano, “Europe is but a mole-hill; there never have existed mighty empires, there never have occurred great revolutions, save in the east, where lived six hundred millions of men—the cradle of all religions, the birthplace of all metaphysics.”
One day Napoleon, conversing with Las Cases, asked him, “Were you a gamester?”
“Alas, sire,” Las Cases replied, “I must confess that I was, but only occasionally.”