Quotes About Talleyrand

Mirabeau, the French revolutionary politician, once observed of Talleyrand that he "would sell his soul for money and he would be right, for he would be exchanging dung for gold."32 Napoleon expressed this sentiment more concisely, calling Talleyrand "a pile of shit in a silk stocking.

Talleyrand smiled. 'It seems that the English are preparing to fight to the last Austrian.

Talleyrand was notorious for taking bribes. But then he was endlessly practical. He liked to lecture the young foreign office clerks on the necessity of masturbating before coming to work, thus ensuring unclouded minds at least throughout the morning.

The colonel could swear with vehemence and originality when he was angry, spilling his oaths in a pretty pepper and disproving Talleyrand's definition of swearing as the means by which the inarticulate gave themselves the impression of eloquence.

Talleyrand, talking of a man who dealt in nothing but quotations, said, "That man has a mind of inverted commas."