He was refined in manner and always a gentleman. In his campaigns he was careless of his clothing through necessity, but when in the cities he liked to have all the refinements. He never thought of money; he would spend it if he had it, and if he did not spend it, he gave it away. He enjoyed society and was a great admirer of women. "He knelt before love, without surrendering his sword to it."
He was human. He enjoyed a good joke, and sometimes his jokes hurt. It is related that once, after a long march, he arrived at a small town where he expected to get some food. He was received by the notables of the town, among them a young intellectual, who took from his pocket a long address. Bolívar listened to the beginning and at once knew that it was going to be not only long but tedious. The young man came to a sentence reading: "When Caesar crossed the Rubicon…," at which point Bolívar interrupted him, saying, "My dear friend, when Caesar crossed the Rubicon he had had his breakfast, and I have not yet had mine. Let us first have breakfast." Generally, he respected everyone's feelings, and was much inclined to praise others, the living as well as the dead. We may well remember the honors paid to Girardot, his beautiful words in homage to Cedeño and Plaza, how Páez received his dues after the battle of Carabobo, and how Sucre was given his right place as one of the most legitimate glories of the continent by Bolívar. Speaking of Anzoátegui's death, he said: "I would have preferred the loss of two battles to the loss of Anzoátegui." No more beautiful way could be found to be generous while being just.
We have called Bolívar a gentleman; we might rather call him a knight. He loved an ideal and lived for that ideal, and that ideal was his last thought before he went to his rest.
He was judged in Europe and North America in very flattering terms. Daniel
Webster, J.H. Perkins and Joseph Story, in the name of the Bunker Hill
Monument Association, wrote Bolívar the following:
"When we read of the enormous sacrifice of personal fortune, the calmness in difficult situations, the exercise without misusing a power greater than imperial power, the repeated refusal of dictatorship, the simplicity of your Repúblican habits and the submission to the constitution and law which has so gloriously distinguished the career of Your Excellency, we believe that we see the image of our venerated Washington. At the same time that we admire and respect his virtues, we feel moved by the greatest sympathy to pay equal homage to the hero and Liberator of the South."
Martin Van Buren wrote:
"What better example could be presented of human glory than that the great chieftain who, after having successfully resisted foreign aggression and extinguished domestic commotion, also conquered the weakness to which noble hearts have been subjected at all times."
Murray, an English rear admiral, wanted to present his homage to the "leader of all South America"; Lord Byron, whose yacht was called Bolívar, also expressed his desire to visit him. Lafayette, Monsignor de Pradt, Martin de Nancy, Martin-Maillefer, and the noted Humboldt, among others, expressed their admiration for Bolívar. Victor Hugo praised him. His name was on the lips of the Repúblicans of Europe as a symbol of liberty.
We have seen the words of Lafayette in transmitting the present sent to Bolívar by Washington's family. A former member of the French Convention wrote to him: "You are the first citizen of the world." The noted Irish orator O'Connell sent his son to him with the following words: "I am sending him to you, illustrious sir, in order that, admiring and imitating your example he may serve under Your Excellency." The same was done by Sir Robert Wilson, member of the English Parliament. Kosciusko's nephew went to him to have the honor to serve him. The Dutch representative in Bolivia compared him with William of Nassau. Bernadotte, King of Sweden, spoke of a striking analogy between Bolívar and himself. Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain, expressed his desire that Murat's son go to Bolívar as his aide-de-camp. Iturbide's son preferred also to serve under him. J.P. Hamilton, British commissioner to the republic of Colombia, says: "He is the greatest man, the most extraordinary character produced up to this day by the new world." He considers him "supereminent above all heroes living in the Temple of Fame."
Many persons have made comparisons between Bolívar and Napoleon, Bolívar and Washington and Bolívar and San Martín. Juan Montalvo (in "Simón Bolívar") writes that Bolívar is not so well known as Napoleon because the glamour of Napoleon's life reduced to silence the lives of his contemporaries. He asserts that in the future, Bolívar will take his place beside the French Emperor. Napoleon owes his glory to Chateaubriand, to Lamartine, to Madame de Stael, to Byron, to Victor Hugo, while Bolívar has had few biographers, and a very few have spoken of him with the power and authority of those who praised or attacked Napoleon.