Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Quotes

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand — French Diplomat born on February 02, 1754, died on May 17, 1838

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord , prince de Bénévent, then prince de Talleyrand, was a French bishop, politician and diplomat. Due to a lame leg, he was not able to pursue the military career that had originally been foreseen for him by his family. Instead he studied theology. In 1780, he became 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. Those he served often distrusted Talleyrand but, like Napoleon, found him extremely useful. The name "Talleyrand" has become a byword for crafty, cynical diplomacy... (wikipedia)

Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love.

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

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

Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts.

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.