Waterloo (I) (1970)

Rod Steiger: Napoleon Bonaparte

Photos 

Quotes 

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Never interrupt your enemy while he's making a mistake. That's bad manners.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Cross the river. Tomorrow we will dry our boots in Brussels.

  Michel Ney : God willing, sire.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : God? God has nothing to do with it.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : When I am dead and gone what will the world say of me?

  Le Bedoyere : They'll say that you extended the limits of glory, sire.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : The limits of glory'; is that all I have to leave to my son, the 'limits of glory'?

• [On Wellington's refusal to move] 

  Napoleon Bonaparte : [thinks to himself]  This Englishman has two qualities I admire: caution, and above all, courage

  [speaks up] 

  Napoleon Bonaparte : He hasn't moved, he's nailed himself to his ridge. Now's the time to move all the heavy artillery against Picton.

• [Observing the advance of the Gordon Highlanders] 

  Napoleon Bonaparte : Has Wellington nothing to offer me but these Amazons?

• Michel Ney : Wellington's on the run! I caught him at Quatre Bras! He's retreating!

  Napoleon Bonaparte : If Wellington's retreating, what are you doing here?

  Michel Ney : But, Sire...

  Napoleon Bonaparte : If Wellington's retreating, what are you doing here? Why didn't you follow him? Why didn't you pursue?

  Michel Ney : [Raises voice]  where are the reinforcements you promised me?

  Napoleon Bonaparte : [shouting]  Don't you dare criticize me! Don't you dare! Don't you see if Wellington's free to choose his ground then everything I've won in this campaign you've lost!

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Well they've done it! The whole of Europe has declared war against me! Not against France, but against me.

  Le Bedoyere : They dignify you sire by making you a Nation!

  Napoleon Bonaparte : [laughing]  Dignify? Dignify? They deny me the decency of law! They make it legal that any clown can kill me.

  Michel Ney : Well we've fought with mud in our boots before!

  Napoleon Bonaparte : Yes well, I'll discuss peace over Wellington's dead body, that's my peace table!

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Le Bedoyere, do you have any children?

  Le Bedoyere : Yes, sire; one son, very young,no taller than your boot.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : And if he were with you, would you want him with you here today?

  Le Bedoyere : Yes, sire.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : Yes, why?

  Le Bedoyere : So he could see you, sire.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : See me? You know, I have a son. I'd give anything in the world to see him. I'd give my heart, I'd give my life, but not here. I wouldn't want him to witness this battle here today.

• [Napoleon is watching the charge of the Scots Greys] 

  Napoleon : Those men on grey horses are terrifying.

  Marshal Soult : They are the noblest cavalry in Europe; and the worst led.

  Napoleon : That may be; that may be, but we will match them with our lancers.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : [watching the advance of troops in the distance]  Prussians.

  [Ney aims his own telescope] 

  Napoleon Bonaparte : That is not necessary, that is not necessary. They're Prussians, but as far as the army's concerned, they're on the moon. Understand?

• Gen. Drouot : [wounded on his horse]  The Prussians are in the woods! Blucher is in the woods!

  Napoleon Bonaparte : I made one mistake in my life; I should have burned Berlin.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : [dictating a letter]  To my dear Prince Alexis... I did not "usurp" the crown. I found it, in the gutter, and I, I picked it up with my sword, and it was the people, Alexis, the people who put it on my head. He who saves a nation violates no law.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : [in pain from the early stages of stomach cancer]  My body is dying, but my mind is still good!

• Napoleon Bonaparte : [after the defeat of the Prussians at Ligny]  The field of honor is never a pretty sight. Nevertheless, sixteen thousand Prussian dead; that's good news to slap on the walls in Paris, eh?

• [Bonaparte is facing down Louis XVIII's artillery, unarmed] 

  Napoleon Bonaparte : Soldiers of the fifth. Do you recognise me?

  [pause] 

  Napoleon Bonaparte : If you want to kill your Emperor? Here I am.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : I can't believe my ears! You all stand before me waving a piece of paper crying 'Abdicate, abdicate!' I WILL NOT! I WILL NOT, NOT, NOT!

• Napoleon Bonaparte : What's he doing? What's Ney doing? What's happening? Can't I leave the field for a minute? What's he doing there? How can a man go forward with the cavalry without infantry support? What's the matter with you?

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Grouchy! Gerard! You take 30,000 men. You take one third of my army and pursue Blucher. Don't let them regroup or consolidate and don't let them rejoin!

• Michel Ney : You have no choice. You have to give up the throne.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : Oh, Ney, Ney, Ney. The throne? You know what the throne is, Ney? The throne is an overdecorated piece of furniture. It's what's behind the throne that counts. My brains, my ambitions, my desires, my hope, my imagination, and above all, my will.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : I am France and France is me!

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Let's not have any disagreement. Any disagreement only leads to disaster.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : All's well that ends well.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Let me tell you something. The most precious quality in life is loyalty. Loyalty!

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Battles are lost and won in a quarter of an hour.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Wellington? Why is it always Wellington? Wellington, Wellington, Wellington, Wellington. Why are you all so afraid of Wellington?

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Why are you all standing there like frightened children? What are you afraid of? You call yourselves soldiers?

• Napoleon Bonaparte : The only enemy I fear is nature.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : This Wellington wages war in a new way. He fights, sitting on his ass. Well, we'll have to move him off it.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : If I die, it will be here, in the field, with my men!

• Napoleon Bonaparte : I've been in this position before, at the battle of Marengo. I lost the battle at 5:00, but I won it back again at 7!