Quotes from Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.

Mistrust first impulses; they are nearly always good.

Politics is the systematic cultivation of hatred.

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

An important art of politicians is to find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the public.

Those who did not live during the years close to 1789 do not know the pleasure of living.

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

Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love.

In a novel, the author gives the leading character intelligence and distinction. Fate goes to less trouble: mediocrities play a part in great events simply from happening to be there.

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

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.

Society is divided into two classes: the shearers and the shorn. We should always be with the former against the latter.

If you wish to be popular in society consent to be taught many things you already know.

If we go on explaining we shall cease to understand one another.

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.

Nothing succeeds so well as success.

Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts.

Love is a reality which is born in the fairy region of romance.

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.

Ones reputation is like a shadow, it is gigantic when it precedes you, and a pigmy in proportion when it follows.

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

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

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

I know where there is more wisdom than is found in Napoleon, Voltaire, or all the ministers present and to come - in public opinion.