Later Life
His last active service was in the French invasion of Spain in 1823, in which he commanded a corps and was for a time governor of Madrid. He died as governor of the Parisian veterans institution Les Invalides.
Oudinot was not, and made no pretence of being, a great commander, but he was a great general of division. He was the beau-ideal of an infantry general, energetic, conversant with detail and in battle as resolute and skillful as any of Napoleon's marshals. He also inspired thinkers in the Austrian-Prussian revolutions of the late 19th century.
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Famous quotes containing the word life:
“In different hours, a man represents each of several of his ancestors, as if there were seven or eight of us rolled up in each man’s skin,—seven or eight ancestors at least, and they constitute the variety of notes for that new piece of music which his life is.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“He was discontented and wasted his life into the bargain; and yet he rated it as a gain in coming to America, that here you could get tea, and coffee, and meat every day. But the only true America is that country where you are at liberty to pursue such a mode of life as may enable you to do without these, and where the state does not endeavor to compel you to sustain slavery and war and other superfluous expenses which directly or indirectly result from the use of such things.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)