Great Throughts Treasury

"Too much sensibility creates unhappiness; too much insensibility leads to crime."

"Nothing succeeds so well as success."

"A country with thirty religions and only one sauce. [America]"

"A married man with a family will do anything for money."

"Above all, gentlemen, no excessive enthusiasm."

"A diplomat who says yes means maybe, a diplomat who says maybe means no, and a diplomat who says no is no diplomat."

"A court is an assembly of noble and distinguished beggars."

"A clever woman often compromises her husband; a stupid woman only compromises herself."

"Above all, gentlemen, no zeal."

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

"Black as the devil, Hot as hell, Pure as an angel, Sweet as love"

"Gratitude is a keen sense of favors to come."

"I am more afraid of an army of one hundred sheep led by a lion, than of an army of one hundred lions led by a sheep."

"I find that nonsense, at times, is singularly refreshing"

"He who cannot feel friendship is alike incapable of love. Let a woman beware of the man who owns that he loves no one but herself."

"I found a country with thirty-two religions and only one sauce. [America]"

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

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

"It is not an event; it is an item of news."

"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily"

"It is the beginning of the end. [On the Hundred Days]"

"It is worse than a crime; it is a blunder."

"Love is a reality which is born in the fairy region of romance."

"Love of glory can only create a great hero; contempt of glory creates a great man."

"Methods are the masters of masters."

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

"Mistrust first impulses; they are nearly always good."

"Not play at whist, sir? Alas! what a dreary old age you are preparing for yourself."

"Not too much zeal."

"She is intolerable, but that is her only fault"

"One’s reputation is like a shadow, it is gigantic when it precedes you, and a pigmy in proportion when it follows."

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

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

"Show me another pleasure like dinner which comes every day and lasts an hour."

"The allies are too frightened to fight each other, too stupid to agree."

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

"Society is divisible into two classes: shearers and shorn."

"Speech has been given to man to disguise his thought."

"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."

"The art of statesmanship is to foresee the inevitable and to expedite its occurrence."

"The love of glory can only create a great hero; the contempt of it creates a great man."

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

"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."

"There are no principles, only events."

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

"They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing. [Of the Bourbons]"

"This is worse than a crime, it's a blunder"

"This is the beginning of the end."

"There is one body that knows more than anybody, and that is everybody"

"To be agreeable in society, you must consent to be taught many things which you already know."