Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord Quotes

The tricolour flag, symbol of revolution, was raised on the cathedral's towers and the bells rang to the frantic acclamation of the crowd. 'Listen to the tocsin! We are triumphing' remarked the Prince de Talleyrand gleefully: 'Who are we?' he was asked: 'Quiet! Not a word. I will tell you tomorrow' was the reply.

Je connais quelqu'un qui a plus d'esprit que Napoléon, que Voltaire, que tous les ministres présents et futurs: c'est l'opinion.

It is the beginning of the end.

Vous ne jouez donc pas le whist, monsieur? Hélas! quelle triste vieilesse vous vous préparez!

A diplomat who says "yes" means "maybe", a diplomat who says "maybe" means "no", and a diplomat who says "no" is no diplomat.

It is not an event, it is a piece of news.

I know where there is more wisdom than is found in Napoleon, Voltaire, or all the ministers present and to come – in public opinion.

There is no sentiment less aristocratic than that of nonbelief.

You do not play then at whist, sir! Alas, what a sad old age you are preparing for yourself!

Qui n'a pas vécu dans les années voisines de 1789 ne sait pas ce que c'est le plaisir de vivre.

C'est le commencement de la fin.

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.

Financiers flourish only when nations decline.

Ce n'est pas un événement, c'est une nouvelle.

Whoever did not live in the eighteenth century before the Revolution does not know the sweetness of life and cannot imagine what happiness there can be in life. It is the century that forged all victorious weapons against this elusive adversary called boredom. Love, Poetry, Music, Theater, Painting, Architecture, the Court, Salons, Parks and Gardens, Gastronomy, Letters, Arts, Sciences, all contributed to the satisfaction of physical, intellectual and even moral appetites, to the refinement of all voluptuousness, all elegance and all pleasures. The existence was so full that if the seventeenth century was the Great Century of glories, the eighteenth was that of indigestion.