My maxim was, la carrière est ouverte aux talents [the road is open to the talented], without distinction of birth or fortune.

Napoleon frames his rule as a meritocratic project: advancement should depend on ability rather than inherited rank or wealth. The French phrase—often associated with Revolutionary ideals—signals a break with the ancien régime’s aristocratic privilege and helps justify reforms that promoted talent in the army and administration. At the same time, the maxim functions rhetorically: it presents Napoleon’s authority as grounded in fairness and opportunity, even as his regime centralized power and created new elites (notably through titles and patronage). The quote thus captures a tension between revolutionary meritocracy and imperial hierarchy.