Quotes from Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

Only a man who has loved a woman of genius can appreciate what happiness there is in loving a fool.

Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts. [Fr., La parole a ete donnce a l'homme pour deguiser sa pensee.]

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

A married man with a family will do anything for money.

The rich man despises those who flatter him too much, and hates those who do not flatter him at all.

Speech has been given to man to disguise his thoughts.

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

A clever woman often compromises her husband; a stupid woman only compromises herself.

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

Women sometimes forgive a man who forces the opportunity, but never a man who misses ones.

A court is an assembly of noble and distinguished beggars.

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

Too much sensibility creates unhappiness too much insensibility leads to crime.

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.

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.

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