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Nothing is more imperious . . . than weakness when it knows it is backed by strength; look at women.
-Napoleon

Via. An interesting short bio of Napoleon’s love(lorn) life:

Although passionately in love with Josephine, the widow of Beneral de Beauharnais whom he married after her husband was guillotined; Napoleon was a reactionary pragmatist regarding women. To solidify his hold on Europe and to establish a French imperial dynasty, he divorced Josephine and married Marie Louise, the Archduchess of Austria.

Napoleon was convinced that marriage should not be an affair of hormones and propinquity, but of acquiring and transmitting property and conceiving and raising children, and that adultery was not a cause for divorce unless the man kept his mistress under the same roof as his wife. However, he declared a wife’s adultery as grounds for divorce–even though he twice forgave Josephine for cuckolding him.

Napoleon is proof that oneitis can cause a man to betray his own principles. As smart and savvy as he was about the nature of woman, Josephine had him by the short n’ curlies. And yet, he kicked Jo to the curb when geopolitical realities demanded it. I have the impression that men of yore indulged their oneitis without letting it paralyze them or distract them from their manly pursuits, such as conquering a continent, which is a stark contrast to today’s thirsty beta orbiter who will allow himself to wither and die on the vine chasing an uninterested girl for years on end.

Intriguingly, Napoleon was perceptive about the effect that living in the anonymous urban pleasuredome has on women’s egos:

A woman, in order to know what is due her and what her power is, must live in Paris for six months.

A man ahead of his time?

[crypto-donation-box]

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