Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord

“Treason is a matter of dates.”

“They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.”

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

“It is worse than a crime, it is a blunder.”

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

“This is the beginning of the end.”

“Above all, not too much zeal.”

“War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.”

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

“He who has not lived in the years before the revolution cannot know what the sweetness of living is.”

“Black <strong class="highlight">coffeestrong> must be hot as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.”

“There are no principles, only events.”

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

“Never speak ill of yourself; your friends will always say enough on that subject.”

“The love of glory can only create a hero; the contempt of it creates a great man.”

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