French diplomat (1754-1838)
People connected to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
He served Louis XVI, the Revolution, Napoleon, the restored Bourbons, and two more kings after that — outlasting every regime by switching sides at the perfect moment. The name Talleyrand became shorthand for diplomatic cunning so fluid it looked like betrayal.
Born in 1754, he studied theology and rose to Agent-General of the Clergy in 1780, then Bishop of Autun in 1789 just as the Revolution began. He became Napoleon's chief diplomat, brokering the 1801 Treaty of Lunéville with Austria and the 1802 Treaty of Amiens with Britain, working mostly for peace to lock in French gains. By 1805 he opposed Napoleon's fresh wars against Austria, Prussia, and Russia; he resigned as foreign minister in 1807 but kept the emperor's trust while secretly conspiring with Tsar Alexander I and Austrian minister Klemens von Metternich to undermine him. When Napoleon fe…
Sourced, dated quotes from Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
The tricolour flag, symbol of revolution, was raised on the cathedral's towers and the bells rang to the frantic acclamation of the crowd. 'Listen to the tocsin!
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.
There is no sentiment less aristocratic than that of nonbelief.
Financiers flourish only when nations decline.
Accessibility on the part of rulers ends by inspiring love rather than respect, and love evaporates at first sign of trouble.
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