Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgordʁɑ̃ peʁiɡɔʁ]; 1754–1838), prince de Bénévent, then prince de Talleyrand, was a French bishop, politician and diplomat. After theology studies, he became in 1780 Agent-General of the Clergy and represented the Catholic Church to the French Crown. He worked at the highest levels of successive French governments, most commonly as foreign minister or in some other diplomatic capacity. His career spanned the regimes of Louis XVI, the years of the French Revolution, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, and Louis-Philippe...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionDiplomat
Date of Birth2 February 1754
CountryFrance
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.
Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts. [Fr., La parole a ete donnce a l'homme pour deguiser sa pensee.]
Since the masses are always eager to believe something, for their benefit nothing is so easy to arrange as facts.
Suave molecules of Mocha stir up your blood, without causing excess heat; the organ of thought receives from it a feeling of sympathy; work becomes easier and you will sit down without distress to your principal repast which will restore your body and afford you a calm, delicious night.
Only a man who has loved a woman of genius can appreciate what happiness there is in loving a fool.
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.
Methods are the masters of masters.
Society is divided into two classes: the shearers and the shorn. We should always be with the former against the latter.
God gave humans language so they could conceal their thoughts from one another.
A woman will sometimes forgive the man who tries to seduce her, but never the man who misses an opportunity when offered.
Without freedom of the press, there can be no representative government.
Show me another pleasure like dinner which comes every day and lasts an hour.
What clever man has ever needed to commit a crime? Crime is the last resort of political half-wits.