Charles Maurice De Talleyrand (1754-1838) quotes

• A court is an assembly of noble and distinguished beggars.
• Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love.
• I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.
• If we go on explaining we shall cease to understand one another.
• Love of glory can only create a great hero; contempt of glory creates a great man.
• Merit, however inconsiderable, should be sought for and rewarded. Methods are the master of masters.
• Mistrust first impulses; they are nearly always good.
• Ones reputation is like a shadow, it is gigantic when it precedes you, and a pigmy in proportion when it follows.
• The bold defiance of a woman is the certain sign of her shame, when she has once ceased to blush, it is because she has too much to blush for.
• To succeed in the world, it is much more necessary to possess the penetration to discern who is a fool, than to discover who is a clever man.
• Too much sensibility creates unhappiness and too much insensibility creates crime.
• War is much too serious a thing to be left to military men.
• What clever man has ever needed to commit a crime? Crime is the last resort of political half-wits.
• Without freedom fo the press, there can be no representative government.