Help support TMP


"Of Napoleon and 'religious wars'" Topic


5 Posts

All members in good standing are free to post here. Opinions expressed here are solely those of the posters, and have not been cleared with nor are they endorsed by The Miniatures Page.

Please use the Complaint button (!) to report problems on the forums.

For more information, see the TMP FAQ.


Back to the Napoleonic Discussion Message Board


Areas of Interest

Napoleonic

Featured Hobby News Article


Featured Link


Top-Rated Ruleset

Fire and Steel


Rating: gold star gold star gold star gold star gold star gold star gold star 


Featured Showcase Article

The Amazing Worlds of Grenadier

The fascinating history of one of the hobby's major manufacturers.


Featured Profile Article

Editor Julia's 2015 Christmas Project

Editor Julia would like your support for a special project.


Featured Book Review


764 hits since 6 Jun 2020
©1994-2024 Bill Armintrout
Comments or corrections?

Tango0106 Jun 2020 9:56 p.m. PST

""Religious wars," the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is reputed to have said, "are basically people killing each other over who has the better imaginary friend."

That's a statement that's been attributed to Napoleon by a number of religious skeptics, mostly on the Internet.

The quotation is almost certainly fraudulent. It hasn't been located, so far as I can tell, in any genuine historical source. Moreover, it doesn't even sound authentic. Although he was a well-known religious skeptic and a fairly outspoken critic of Christianity, Napoleon never seems to have referred to God (or to anybody else, for that matter) as an "imaginary friend." Such coolly ironic language savors much more of the 21st century than of the early 19th…"
Main page
link

Amicalement
Armand

Robert le Diable07 Jun 2020 8:23 a.m. PST

"First, know thy Historian".
The Church of Latter-Day Saints is not known for meticulous, exacting, rigorous or even plausible Historical writing. From their point of view, of course, the genocidal expansion of the United States does not merit the same kind of attention given to certain other matters in this memorable article. J Smith could have been a rival to Washington Irving, Cooper, maybe even Hawthorne, though he'd never have matched the imaginative invention of Mark Twain.

Tango0108 Jun 2020 3:05 p.m. PST

Thanks!.


Amicalement
Armand

arthur181509 Jun 2020 2:50 a.m. PST

Napoleon may not have said it, but it's a great line.

Tango0109 Jun 2020 12:30 p.m. PST

(smile)


Amicalement
Armand

Sorry - only verified members can post on the forums.