Charles Maurice de Talleyrand's Quotes

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.

She is such a good friend that she would throw all her acquaintances into the water for the pleasure of fishing them out again.

The reputation of a man is like his shadow, gigantic when it precedes him, and pigmy in its proportions when it follows.

What clever man has ever needed to commit a crime? Crime is the last resort of political half-wits.

Show me another pleasure like dinner which comes every day and lasts an hour.

Since the masses are always eager to believe something, for their benefit nothing is so easy to arrange as facts.

Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts.

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.

A court is an assembly of noble and distinguished beggars.

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.

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.

Too much sensibility creates unhappiness and too much insensibility creates crime.

War is much too serious a thing to be left to military men.

Without freedom of the press, there can be no representative government.

Merit, however inconsiderable, should be sought for and rewarded. Methods are the master of masters.

Mistrust first impulses; they are nearly always good.

The art of statesmanship is to foresee the inevitable and to expedite its occurrence.