Half Wits Quotes by Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

Those who have not lived in the eighteenth century, in the years before the Revolution do not know the sweetness of living and cannot…

— Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

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

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

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

— Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

Suave molecules of Mocha stir up your blood, without causing excess heat; the organ of thought receives from it a feeling of sympathy; work…

— Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

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

— Charles Maurice de Talleyrand