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.”

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

“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.”

“A court is an assembly of noble and distinguished beggars.”

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

“The art of statesmanship is to foresee the inevitable and to expedite its occurrence.”

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

“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.”

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

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

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

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

“Love of glory can only create a great hero; contempt of glory creates a great man.”

“Mistrust first impulses; they are nearly always good.”

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

“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.”

“Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts.”

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

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