The phrase was correct, almost for Napoleon's whole life.

At any rate, the pomp of Paris served but to root his youthful affections more tenaciously in the rocks of Corsica.
In September, 1785, that is, at the age of sixteen, Buonaparte was nominated for a commission as junior lieutenant in La Fere regiment of artillery quartered at Valence on the Rhone.

This was his first close contact with real life.

The rules of the service required him to spend three months of rigorous drill before he was admitted to his commission.

The work was exacting: the pay was small, viz., 1,120 francs, or less than L45, a year; but all reports agree as to his keen zest for his profession and the recognition of his transcendent abilities by his superior officers.[8] There it was that he mastered the rudiments of war, for lack of which many generals of noble birth have quickly closed in disaster careers that began with promise: there, too, he learnt that hardest and best of all lessons, prompt obedience.