List of aphorisms by Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord

Not only his political career, but also the aphorisms of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand made the French statesman and Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand (1754–1838) famous. Throughout all regimes, from the Revolution to the Restoration to the government of King Louis-Philippe (and also a Roman Catholic bishop , albeit married), he kept the upper hand politically. Contributing to this was the fear of those around him about his cutting judgments, which were also reflected in countless aphorisms that he uttered on many occasions. The literal transmission of these sayings differs in some details from one another.

aphorism	Addressee / origin	source
No farewell in the world is more difficult than farewell to power.
Foreign policy is the art of standing on someone else's toes until they apologize.
Sire, you can do anything with a bayonet, but you can't sit on it.
Insults are the right of those who are wrong.
Never shame or embarrass any person, however foolish and ignorant they may be, especially never a child.
The most important art of the politician is to find new names for old institutions whose old names have become offensive to the public.
In a novel, the main character must be a character; In real life a happy coincidence often rules and pushes mediocre people to the fore, who have no other merit than to be at hand at the crucial moment.
Deserters would have to be shot for cowardice and honored for cleverness at the same time.
In the things of this world one must not stick to the present alone. What is often means very little, but what will be often means a great deal.	Talleyrand: Memoirs
A diplomat who says “yes” means “maybe”, who says “maybe” means “no” and the one who says “no” is not a diplomat. A lady who says “no” means “maybe”, who says “maybe” means “yes” and who says “yes” is not a lady.	To Madame Germaine de Staël
Diplomats never get angry - they take notes.
Diplomacy is the art of cutting your hated neighbor's throat without using a knife.
* It was worse than a crime, it was stupid. * This is more than a crime, this is a mistake.
* [Lack of money is a blessing.] Nobody can say how many political stupidities have already been prevented due to lack of money. * Nothing in the world has prevented so much nonsense as a lack of money.
Only fools and fanatics have no sense of humor at all.
In England there are three sauces and three hundred and sixty religions, in France there are three religions and three hundred and sixty sauces.
Marriage is the coexistence of two bad moods during the day and two bad smells at night.
* Above all, no zeal! * In zeal, three quarters are always stupidity.
Everyone is expendable. If you don't believe it, you're not being honest.
France should remain within its own borders, it owes this to its fame, its justice, its reason, its interests and the interests of the peoples who will be free through France.
When a woman returns a gift, she really hates it.
The care given to the upbringing of women is one of the surest means of refining and observing morals.	Advocacy of school attendance for girls
Women - may you go to their feet, to their knees ... but never get caught in their hands
Really good friends only leave when you need them badly. * Allies are friends who only leave when you need them.
There is nothing more dangerous in the world than fanatical ideas.
One should never give in to the first surge of emotion, because it is noble but unwise.
Expecting the worst from an opponent is not very philanthropic, but it is rarely wrong.
Historiography is the chronicle of human accidents.
The law of history is: get up so I can sit down.
* Anyone who wants to be regarded as a pleasant company must be instructed about things that have long been familiar to them. * To be successful in society, you have to be taught many things that you can already do.
Principles are the most domineering of all tyrants, if allowed to go.
Treason, Sire, is only a matter of date.	To Tsar Alexander I at the Congress of Vienna
Never speak badly of yourself.
“Yes” and “No” are the shortest words, but they require more thought than any other before they are spoken.
Coffee has to be hot as hell, black as the devil, pure as an angel and sweet as love.
Brief should never come at the expense of accuracy.
Anyone who did not know the ancien régime will never know how sweet life was.
To be in the midst of many people, what a nuisance! Not to be what a drama!
Love is a reality in the realm of the imagination.
I never lie, but nobody can force me to tell the truth.
Power is a meal that causes an increased appetite.
Only a man who has loved a clever woman can appreciate what a pleasure it is to love a gosling.
What a shame, Messieur, that such a tall man is so badly brought up.	About Napoleon after, in a fit of anger over one of his intrigues, he had showered him with serious insults for half an hour in front of the assembled Cabinet Council and left the room.
I forgive people if they disagree with me, but I don't forgive them if they don't have an opinion of their own.
It is better to postpone until tomorrow what cannot be done well and effortlessly today than to do things in the rush that comes from feeling too busy.
Not giving in is sometimes killed, but giving in is weakened.
Sitting down and thinking is really hard work.
How superior is naturalness. I don't know anyone who impresses me and who doesn't always appear to be simple and natural. Artificial behavior is inevitably a sign of insecurity.
Napoleon was endowed with astonishingly great abilities, but he did not understand his mission; because his moral strength was too little, zero. He could not bear his happiness with moderation, his misfortune with dignity, and precisely because he lacked moral strength, he caused the misfortunes of Europe and his own.
This is not an event, just news.	On the occasion of the announcement of Napoleon's death
Opposition is the art of being so skilful against it that you can be for it later.
The art of politics is to anticipate the inevitable and hasten its appearance.
If you emphasize a politician's honesty too loudly, you doubt his ability.
My principle has always been not to have a principle.
Wealth doesn't change people, it just pulls their masks off.
Nothing gives you more peace than a calm decision.
Assassination is the usual method of dethroning in Russia.
The most sensible thing about chess is to sacrifice the opponent's soldiers.
Language is given to man in order to hide his thoughts.	To the Spanish envoy Izquierdo, 1807
When you lead people to death, tell them you lead them to glory.
Statistics is the correct way to add wrong digits.
Only fools are loyal to death. Faithfulness has its limit in the mind.
What is excessive is worthless.
If the inability needs a code name, it's called bad luck.
Useful ambiguities in the state treaties are a fine art.
A married man with children would do anything for money.
What senseless presumptuousness to want to rule the world through abstractions, analyzes, through the fluctuating concepts of freedom and equality and through a purely metaphysical morality! We have seen the deplorable consequences of these fantasies ourselves.	Talleyrand: Memoirs
Immutability in politics is just another word for lack of sense.
People who resist temptation just postpone their surrender until tomorrow.
Anyone who wants to hide a truth only needs to speak it openly - after all, it will not be believed.
There is something worse than slander: the truth.
There are three types of knowledge: knowledge in itself, knowledge of the way of life and knowledge of how to do something. The latter two generally make the first redundant.
Give me two words from a man and I will hang him up.
You have to have the future in mind and the past on file.
My interest in the future is that I will spend the rest of my life there.
* She is unbearable, but that is her only fault. * Some people are obnoxious, but that's their only mistake.
Some people think they are deaf simply because people no longer talk about them.
Anyone who has lived long enough has seen everything and the opposite of everything.

literature

Jean Orieux: Talleyrand. The misunderstood Sphinx . Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1991. ISBN 978-3-596-25657-0

swell

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad ^ae ^af ^ag ^ah ^ai ^aj ^ak ^al ^am ^an ^ao ^ap ^aq ^ar ^as ^at ^au ^av ^aw ^ax ^ay Aphorismen.de
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q Well cited .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad ^ae ^af ^ag ^ah ^ai ^aj ^ak ^al Birgitt Krohn: French proverbs .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa gratis-spruch.de
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ de Zita.de
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad ^ae ^af ^ag ^ah ^ai ^aj ^ak ^al ^am ^an ^ao ^ap ^aq de.101sharequotes.com
↑ Orieux, p. 446.
^ ^A ^b Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord: Memoirs of Prince Talleyrand . Ed .: Adolf Ebeling. 5 volumes. Cologne 1891–1893 digitized
↑ Orieux, p. 379.
↑ Wikiquote . Without further evidence.
↑ This is a common summary of a passage from Talleyrand's letter to King Louis XVIII. of October 4, 1814, which he wrote during the Congress of Vienna: [...] this is what the Emperor [Alexander I] meant Saxony when he said: "The traitors to the cause of Europe." is a question of the date ", and after a long pause added:" and an effect of the embarrassment one can get into by circumstances. " ( Talleyrand's correspondence with King Louis XVIII during the Congress of Vienna . FA Brockhaus, 1881, p . 20).

^ Christa Bauer, Anna Ehrlich: The Vienna Congress: Diplomats, intrigues and scandals . Amalthea Signum Verlag, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-902862-85-3 , p. 151 (304 p., Limited preview in Google Book search).

↑ Robert Braunmüller. The sweet life . Evening newspaper, Munich, December 14, 2009

↑ Orieux, p. 446.

↑ Orieux, p. 703.

↑ Orieux, p. 552.

↑ Johannes Wilms: Talleyrand. Virtuoso of Power 1754–1838 . Beck, Munich 2013. ISBN 978-3-406-64558-7 , p. 284.

↑ Orieux, p. 37.

[aphorismende-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad ^ae ^af ^ag ^ah ^ai ^aj ^ak ^al ^am ^an ^ao ^ap ^aq ^ar ^as ^at ^au ^av ^aw ^ax ^ay Aphorismen.de

[gutzitiert-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q Well cited .

[krohn-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad ^ae ^af ^ag ^ah ^ai ^aj ^ak ^al Birgitt Krohn: French proverbs .

[gratisspruch-4] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa gratis-spruch.de

[zitade-5] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ de Zita.de

[sharequotes-6] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad ^ae ^af ^ag ^ah ^ai ^aj ^ak ^al ^am ^an ^ao ^ap ^aq de.101sharequotes.com

[7] Orieux, p. 446.

[Memoiren-8] A ^b Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord: Memoirs of Prince Talleyrand . Ed .: Adolf Ebeling. 5 volumes. Cologne 1891–1893 digitized

[9] Orieux, p. 379.

[10] Wikiquote . Without further evidence.

[11] This is a common summary of a passage from Talleyrand's letter to King Louis XVIII. of October 4, 1814, which he wrote during the Congress of Vienna: [...] this is what the Emperor [Alexander I] meant Saxony when he said: "The traitors to the cause of Europe." is a question of the date ", and after a long pause added:" and an effect of the embarrassment one can get into by circumstances. " ( Talleyrand's correspondence with King Louis XVIII during the Congress of Vienna . FA Brockhaus, 1881, p . 20).

[12] Christa Bauer, Anna Ehrlich: The Vienna Congress: Diplomats, intrigues and scandals . Amalthea Signum Verlag, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-902862-85-3 , p. 151 (304 p., Limited preview in Google Book search).

[13] Robert Braunmüller. The sweet life . Evening newspaper, Munich, December 14, 2009

[14] Orieux, p. 446.

[15] Orieux, p. 703.

[16] Orieux, p. 552.

[17] Johannes Wilms: Talleyrand. Virtuoso of Power 1754–1838 . Beck, Munich 2013. ISBN 978-3-406-64558-7 , p. 284.

[18] Orieux, p. 37.