- Prince Andrei Bolkonsky: What are they talking about? How can there be such a thing as a science of war? What science is possible where the conditions of a subject are unknown and cannot be defined, where even the strength of the forces engaged cannot be ascertained? No one can know with any exactitude the relative positions of the armies at any given moment. Sometimes a division of 5,000 men is as good as 30,000, because one soldier shouts hurrah and runs forward. At others, as at Austerlitz, 50,000 will fly from 8. So what are they talking about? Is a man a military genius because he knows when to order up the biscuits? He's called a genius because of the glamour with which the military's invested. And Napoleon is no exception. He thinks he commands a million men, moving them here, there, and everywhere. But really he follows them. They've not been brought to the borders of Russia by him, but by forces beyond our comprehension. A sudden upheaval that occurs regularly in the history of the human race. Like the yearly migration of birds. Napoleon is just a straw thrown to the fore in the wind they make. He's just a banner that they hold aloft.
- Pierre Bezukhov: Should I join the army or shouldn't I? I don't know. Look at me. What kind of a soldier would I make?
- Natasha Rostova: Not a very good one. But you're no worse for that.
- Prince Andrei Bolkonsky: How are you getting on with your studies?
- Nikolenka (child): Very well.
- Prince Andrei Bolkonsky: And what do you like best?
- Nikolenka (child): Geography.
- Prince Andrei Bolkonsky: Oh? Why geography?
- Nikolenka (child): Because I want to be a soldier, and you have to know where the countries are before you march into them.
- Napoleon: The present situation is merely a sketch of a picture that must be finished. There must be one universal European code. One court of appeal. The same money, the same weights and measures, the same laws must be in currency throughout Europe. I shall make one nation out of all the states of Europe, and Paris will be its capital. Only the tsar of Russia prevents that from coming about.
- Nikolenka (child): Are you going back to the army, Papa?
- Prince Andrei Bolkonsky: Yes.
- Nikolenka (child): Do you like being a soldier?
- Prince Andrei Bolkonsky: Well, sometimes one has to be a soldier, whether one likes it or not.
- Princess Maria Bolkonskya: Andrei, promise me one thing. If you meet Anatole Kuragin, don't pick a quarrel with him. It would be so degrading for you to fight a duel. Please.
- Prince Andrei Bolkonsky: I can't promise that.
- Princess Maria Bolkonskya: But you must.
- Prince Andrei Bolkonsky: Don't ask me. There are things that a man must do. Don't worry.