Top 40 Charles Maurice De Talleyrand Quotes (2025 Update)

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

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

2. “A woman will sometimes forgive the man who tries to seduce her, but never the man who misses an opportunity when offered.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

3. “Speech has been given to man to disguise his thoughts.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

4. “If you wish to be popular in society consent to be taught many things you already know.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

6. “An important art of politicians is to find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the public.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

7. “Society is divided into two classes: the shearers and the shorn. We should always be with the former against the latter.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

8. “Only a man who has loved a woman of genius can appreciate what happiness there is in loving a fool.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

9. “I found there a country with thirty-two religions and only one sauce.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

10. “A married man with a family will do anything for money.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

11. “Speech was given to man to conceal his thoughts.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

13. “Politics is the systematic cultivation of hatred.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

14. “Methods are the masters of masters.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

15. “Beauty, devoid of grace, is a mere hook without the bait.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

16. “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.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

17. “Show me another pleasure like dinner which comes every day and lasts an hour.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

19. “A clever woman often compromises her husband; a stupid woman only compromises herself.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

20. “The reputation of a man is like his shadow, gigantic when it precedes him, and pigmy in its proportions when it follows.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

21. “Nothing succeeds so well as success.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

23. “Love is a reality which is born in the fairy region of romance.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Featured in: Romance Quotes

24. “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.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

27. “God gave humans language so they could conceal their thoughts from one another.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

30. “Those who did not live during the years close to 1789 do not know the pleasure of living.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

32. “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.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

33. “There is one person that is wiser than anybody, and that is everybody.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

34. “The rich man despises those who flatter him too much, and hates those who do not flatter him at all.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

35. “Those who have not lived in the eighteenth century, in the years before the Revolution do not know the sweetness of living and cannot imagine what it was like to have happiness in life.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

36. “In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

38. “Regimes may fall and fail, but I do not.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

41. “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.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

42. “Espresso is to Italy, what champagne is to France.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

43. “What I have been taught, I have forgotten; what I know, I have guessed.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

44. “In a novel, the author gives the leading character intelligence and distinction. Fate goes to less trouble: mediocrities play a part in great events simply from happening to be there.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

45. “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.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

47. “Wherever there’s trouble, look for a priest.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

49. “It is not an event; it is a piece of news.”

— Charles Maurice De Talleyrand