Vive Bonaparte!
June 17, 1800 (on observing prisoners of war who recognized him)
Many began to shout, with apparent enthusiasm: “Vive Bonaparte!”
What a thing is imagination! Here are men who don’t know me, who have never seen me, but who only knew of me, and they are moved by my presence, they would do anything for me! And this same incident arises in all centuries and in all countries! Such is fanaticism! Yes, imagination rules the world. The defect of our modern institutions is that they do not speak to the imagination. By that alone can man be governed; without it he is but a brute.
