Talleyrand Quotes

If you wish to be popular in society consent to be taught many things you already know. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Yes, but bad language is bound to make in addition bad government, whereas good language is not bound to make bad government. That again is clear Confucius: if the orders aren't clear they can't be carried out. Lloyd George's laws were such a mess, the lawyers never knew what they meant. And Talleyrand proclaimed that they changed the meaning of words between one conference and another. The means of communication breaks down, and that of course is what we are suffering now. We are enduring the drive to work on the subconscious without appealing to the reason. They repeat a trade name with the music a few times, and then repeat the music without it so that the music will give you the name. I think of the assault. We suffer from the use of language to conceal thought and to withhold all vital and direct answers. There is the definite use of propaganda, forensic language, merely to conceal and mislead. ~ Ezra Pound

You can do anything you like with bayonets, except sit on them. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord

A provisional government was appointed on April 1 (it consisted mainly of Talleyrand's whist partners), and the following day the Senate, on Talleyrand's urging, declared Napoleon deposed. ~ J. Christopher Herold

A clever woman often compromises her husband; a stupid woman only compromises herself. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

If we go on explaining we shall cease to understand one another. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Whereas, according to the declaration of that true man of the world Talleyrand, the use of language is to conceal the thoughts; this is to declare in the present instance, when I say I am not able to bear much talking, it means really, and without any mistake, or equivocation, or oblique meaning, or implication, or subterfuge, or omission, that I am not able; being at present rather weak in the head, and able to work no more. ~ Michael Faraday

Espresso is to Italy, what champagne is to France. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Show me another pleasure like dinner which comes every day and lasts an hour. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Men like M. de Talleyrand are like sharp instruments with which it is dangerous to play. ~ Klemens Von Metternich

Only a man who has loved a woman of genius can appreciate what happiness there is in loving a fool. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Non-intervention is a metaphysical idea, indistinguishable in practice from intervention. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord

The art of putting the right men in the right places is first in the science of government; but that of finding places for the discontented is the most difficult. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

The art of statesmanship is to foresee the inevitable and to expedite its occurrence. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

A married man with a family will do anything for money. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

God gave humans language so they could conceal their thoughts from one another. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

A court is an assembly of noble and distinguished beggars. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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

- We're winning!

- Who is 'we', mon Prince?

- Not a word! I will tell you tomorrow. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord

It is not an event; it is a piece of news. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

War is much too serious a thing to be left to military men. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

What I have been taught, I have forgotten; what I know, I have guessed. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Women sometimes forgive a man who forces the opportunity, but never a man who misses ones. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

To be agreeable in society, you must consent to be taught many things which you already know. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord

It is the beginning of the end.
[Fr., C'est le commencement de al fin.] ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Politics is the systematic cultivation of hatred. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Ones reputation is like a shadow, it is gigantic when it precedes you, and a pigmy in proportion when it follows. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Without freedom of the press, there can be no representative government. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

There are many people who have the gift, or failing, of never understanding themselves. I have been unlucky enough, or perhaps fortunate enough to have received the opposite gift. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Mistrust first impulses; they are nearly always good. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

There are no principles, only events. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord

Those who have not lived in the eighteenth century, in the years before the Revolution do not know the sweetness of living and cannot imagine what it was like to have happiness in life. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Nothing succeeds so well as success. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Carl von Clausewitz, a nineteenth-century Prussian general and military theorist, had said that war was nothing more than the continuation of politics by other means. Similarly, the famous observation of French politician Charles Maurice de Talleyrand that war is much too serious a thing to be left to military men is eternally valid. ~ T.V. Rajeswar

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

Whoever did not live in the years neighboring 1789 does not know what the pleasure of living means.
[Fr., Qui n'a pas vecu dans les annees voisines de 1789 ne sait pas ce que c'est le palisir de vivre.] ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

They had learned nothing and forgotten nothing. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord

Beauty, devoid of grace, is a mere hook without the bait. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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

He who has not lived in the eighteenth century before the Revolution does not know the sweetness of life and can not imagine that there can be happiness in life. This is the century that has shaped all the conquering arms against this elusive adversary called boredom. Love, Poetry, Music, Theatre, Painting, Architecture, Court, Salons, Parks and Gardens, Gastronomy, Letters, Arts, Science, all contributed to the satisfaction of physical appetites, intellectual and even moral refinement of all pleasures, all the elegance and all the pleasures. The existence was so well filled that if the seventeenth century was the Great Age of glories, the eighteenth was that of indigestion. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord

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

A woman will sometimes forgive the man who tries to seduce her, but never the man who misses an opportunity when offered. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Language exists to conceal true thought. ~ Charles Talleyrand

Love is a reality which is born in the fairy region of romance. ~ Charles Maurice De Talleyrand