Full Idea
Opportunists have saved nations; heroes have ruined them.
Gist of Idea
Opportunists can save a nation, and heroes can ruin it
Source
E.M. Cioran (A Short History of Decay [1949], 1 'Defense')
Book Reference
Cioran,E.M.: 'A Short History of Decay', ed/tr. Howard,Richard [Penguin 2010], p.93
A Reaction
Siegfried smashes the staff of Wotan. Napoleon looks like a hero, but he increasingly looks like the single most disastrous figure ever to have emerged in Europe. It took the Germans till 1940 to avenge what he did.