Quotes from Cardinal Richelieu

Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of the State.

Man is immortal, his salvation is hereafter, The state has no immortality, its salvation is now or never

Deception is the knowledge of kings.

To know how to dissemble is the knowledge of kings. [Fr., Savoir dissimuler est le savoir des rois.]

To know how to disguise is the knowledge of kings.

To know how to dissimulate is the knowledge of kings.

Give me six lines written by the most honorable of men, and I will find an excuse in them to hang him.

A single word has sometimes lost or won an empire...

Friendship is the medicine for all misfortune; but ingratitude dries up the fountain of all goodness.

Had Luther and Calvin been confined before they had begun to dogmatize, the states would have been spared many troubles.

War is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men.

War is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men.

Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of state.

Did you think I was immortal?

Friendship is the medicine for all misfortune; but ingratitude dries up the fountain of all goodness.

Carry on any enterprise as if all future success depended on it.