Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord Quotes & Sayings

To be agreeable in society, you must consent to be taught many things which you already know. — Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord

He who has not lived in the eighteenth century before the Revolution does not know the sweetness of life and can not imagine that there can be happiness in life. This is the century that has shaped all the conquering arms against this elusive adversary called boredom. Love, Poetry, Music, Theatre, Painting, Architecture, Court, Salons, Parks and Gardens, Gastronomy, Letters, Arts, Science, all contributed to the satisfaction of physical appetites, intellectual and even moral refinement of all pleasures, all the elegance and all the pleasures. The existence was so well filled that if the seventeenth century was the Great Age of glories, the eighteenth was that of indigestion. — Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord

Speech is the faculty by which men conceal their thoughts. — Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord

There are no principles, only events. — Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord

They had learned nothing and forgotten nothing. — Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord

You can do anything you like with bayonets, except sit on them. — Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord

A diplomat who says "yes" means "maybe", a diplomat who says "maybe" means "no", and a diplomat who says "no" is no diplomat. — Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord

Non-intervention is a metaphysical idea, indistinguishable in practice from intervention. — Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord

- We're winning!

- Who is 'we', mon Prince?

- Not a word! I will tell you tomorrow. — Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-Perigord