A court is an assembly of noble and distinguished beggars.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love.
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.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

If we go on explaining we shall cease to understand one another.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

Love of glory can only create a great hero; contempt of glory creates a great man.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

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

Mistrust first impulses; they are nearly always good.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

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

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

Show me another pleasure like dinner which comes every day and lasts an hour.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand


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

Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

The art of statesmanship is to foresee the inevitable and to expedite its occurrence.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

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.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

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

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.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

Too much sensibility creates unhappiness and too much insensibility creates crime.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

War is much too serious a thing to be left to military men.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

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

Without freedom of the press, there can be no representative government.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand