Biography text

At the moment when France faced its darkest crisis, when defeat was almost certain, Carnot managed to turn defeat into victory. He did it by showing "excellence" in leadership, by making a revolution in military warfare, mobilising the best scientists of France, making use of the École Polytechnique so as to lay the foundation for a broad-based education of French citizens, while using his own discoveries of new scientific principles in the field of machine-tools and machine building, so as to create the basis for an industrial and technological revolution in France and Europe as a whole.

Carnot was convinced that the key to organise nations and people, to elevate citizens to become true nation-builders, is based on the moral quality of leadership whose excellence is not based in the academic knowledge of theories and books, but which shows in particular under conditions of crisis, wars, and duress. The biggest resource and strength in building nations is the sovereign, creative mind of the individual who, faced with the unknown - with obstacles and paradoxes that challenge customary opinion - is forced to look for creative flanks and bold solutions.

"Circumstances develop sometimes faculties in us whose germ we did not think of, making our souls greater and giving our souls energy," Carnot said.

Lazare carnot biography definition Carnot was elected to the National Convention in , and a year later he became a member of the Committee of Public Safety, where he directed the French war effort as one of the Ministers of War during the War of the First Coalition. He oversaw the reorganization of the army, imposed discipline, and significantly expanded the French force through the imposition of mass conscription. Credited with France's renewed military success from to , Carnot came to be known as the "Organizer of Victory". Increasingly disillusioned with the radical politics of the Montagnards , Carnot broke with Maximilien Robespierre and played a role in the latter's overthrow on 9 Thermidor and subsequent execution. He became one of the five initial members of the Directory but was ousted after the Coup of 18 Fructidor in and went into exile.

Among his most excellent generals, he chose people at the age of 25 or 30, upon whose shoulder he put responsibility, having confidence in their powers of imagination and boldness.

That emotional quality of the mind, indispensable for overcoming obstacles and making discoveries, is what Carnot calls "enthusiasm" - passion.

According to his son Hippolyte, who wrote the most insightful and wonderful biography of his father, "A great passion is the soul of the great totality." "Passion is the unique principle of all that is beautiful and great in the world." In a poem called "Ode to Enthusiasm," Carnot writes:

Enthusiasm, love of beauty!
Principle of noble flames.

Biography definition and examples Lazare Carnot, born in to a Jewish family of attorneys, initially pursued a military career after graduating from an engineering school in He earned recognition for his treatise on machines and submitted a dissertation on aeronautics to the Academy of Sciences. Carnot also displayed his literary talent with poems. In , Carnot voiced his opposition to traditional military fortifications, leading to his arrest but subsequent release. Elected to the Constituent Assembly in , he focused on military affairs.

You are not raving drunkenness,
you are not cold reason;
you go further than wisdom,
without exceeding its extent.
Delicate instinct which precedes
both the counsel of prudence
and the calculations of judgment.

Without "enthusiasm," there can never be a creative discovery in science or art. Carnot calls that creative capacity of the mind the "natural geometry," where, with a 'coup d'oeil', or glance, with "artistic ingenuity" the mind forms new hypothesis.