and getting ahead is what they wanted to do.

而进步正是他们所想要的
The French Revolution, and here's an important point,

关于法国大革命我想强调一点
I guess, opened the way by removing legal blocks

它打破了法律的阻碍创造了很多机会
in very many places to the career open to talents.

使能者尽其能
Napoleon used to say tediously that

拿破仑就曾不厌其烦地说
in each soldier's backpack there was a marshal's baton,

不想当元帅的士兵不是好士兵
or staff that you could get promoted with good work,hard work,

还有诸如好好干你就能升迁此类的话
if you didn't get your head blown off in one of these battles.

前提是你没在战场上被爆头
But certainly one of the things that comes out of his insistence on service

当然了他说的这些要坚持服务祖国的话
to the state is creating a whole series of rewards

形成了一种机制
that recompensed virtuous action and hard work.

来褒奖人们的高尚行为和努力工作
That's what the Legion d'honneur,

这也是 Legion d'honneur