[Ads-l] Request help with aphrodisiac remark attributed to Napoleon

[Stephen Goranson]

This is not directly relevant to the request.
There may be different uses of the term. Old uses seem to center on what
arouses in one individual the urge associated with Aphrodite or Venus.
Sometimes potions were recommended  Of course, anciently, there were also
charms or actions purported to entice a specific lover, to effect arousal.
as it were, by remote control
In the case of Mr. Kissinger my guess is that he used that phrase to mean
that his power was a babe magnet, rather than necessarily his outstanding
virility. But I speculate; he did live 100 years.
Anyway, here's a (rare?) text from 1860 by Robert David Lalor, according to
gb, but the title page and worldcat give D'Lalor, M.D.. A Physiological
View of Marriage...:

It frequently happens that a couple will have no offspring, and yet on
being divorced and forming other connections, both will have children. Thus
it was with Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine, who, though unfruitful in
connection, gave proof that the deficiency did not lie in either, but only
in the relationship to each other; perhaps both were too intellectual to
produce the excitement necessary to the desired end; yet I am satisfied
that I could have given them the proper stimulants which would have excited
a mutual warmth of feeling, and given an heir to the throne of France. Had
my APHRODISIAC or VITAL ELIXIR been introduced [....]

sg

https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_physiological_view_of_marriage_with_ob/tTBcAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=napoleon+aphrodesian+OR+aphrodisiac&pg=PA26&printsec=frontcover


On Thu, Nov 12, 2026 at 1:32 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <
00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> A recent Quote Investigator article examined a quotation about power
> attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte who died in 1821. Here is a link to
> the QI article:
> https://quoteinvestigator.com/2026/11/12/power-aphrodisiac/
>
> Here is the earliest attribution to Napoleon I could find:
>
> Cite: 1979 Copyright, Marie Walewska: Napoleon's Great Love by
> Christine Sutherland, Chapter 3: The French Are Coming, Quote Page 42,
> The Vendome Press, New York; Distributed by The Viking Press (Verified
> with scans)
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> We know from contemporary memoirs that at this particular stage of his
> life Napoleon's attitude to the fair sex was one of cynicism and
> contempt. 'Women', he would say to his associates, 'they belong to the
> highest bidder. Power is what they like — it is the greatest of all
> aphrodisiacs, they are fascinated by it. ... I take them and forget
> them. ...'
> [End excerpt]
>
> Author Christine Sutherland did not provide a precise citation for
> this remark, but it appears in important reference works such as the
> following:
>
> Cite: 1999, Random House Webster's Quotationary, Editor Leonard Roy
> Frank, Topic: Power, Quote Page 629, Column 2, Random House, New York.
> (Verified with scans)
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> [Women] belong to the highest bidder. Power is what they like — it is
> the greatest of all aphrodisiacs.
> NAPOLEON (1769-1821). Attributed. In Constant Louis Wairy (his valet),
> Mémoirs de Constant, premier valet de l’empereur, 1831.
> [End excerpt]
>
> I have attempted to find a French version of the quotation in the
> multivolume memoirs of Constant Louis Wairy in the 1830s, but I have
> not succeeded. I have also tried to find the quotation in English
> translations of Wairy's memoirs without success. It may have appeared
> in a memoir by someone else.
>
> Perhaps a list participant can help.
> Garson O'Toole
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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