Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgordʁɑ̃ peʁiɡɔʁ]; 1754–1838), prince de Bénévent, then prince de Talleyrand, was a French bishop, politician and diplomat. After theology studies, he became in 1780 Agent-General of the Clergy and represented the Catholic Church to the French Crown. He worked at the highest levels of successive French governments, most commonly as foreign minister or in some other diplomatic capacity. His career spanned the regimes of Louis XVI, the years of the French Revolution, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, and Louis-Philippe...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionDiplomat
Date of Birth2 February 1754
CountryFrance
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand quotes about
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.
Methods are the masters of masters.
Without freedom of the press, there can be no representative government.
God gave humans language so they could conceal their thoughts from one another.
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.]
Suave molecules of Mocha stir up your blood, without causing excess heat; the organ of thought receives from it a feeling of sympathy; work becomes easier and you will sit down without distress to your principal repast which will restore your body and afford you a calm, delicious night.
War is much too serious a thing to be left to military men.
Mistrust first impulses; they are nearly always good.
Society is divided into two classes: the shearers and the shorn. We should always be with the former against the latter.
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.
Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts. [Fr., La parole a ete donnce a l'homme pour deguiser sa pensee.]
Never speak ill of yourself, your friends will always say enough on that subject.
A woman will sometimes forgive the man who tries to seduce her, but never the man who misses an opportunity when offered.