THE MEMOIRS OF CARDINAL DE RETZ
By Cardinal de Retz
Louis XIII.
Anne of Austria
Cardinal Richelieu
Always judged of actions by men, and
never men by their actions
Always to sacrifice the little affairs
to the greater
Arms which are not tempered by laws
quickly become anarchy
Associating patience with activity
Assurrance often supplies the room of
good sense
Blindness that make authority to
consist only in force
Bounty, which, though very often
secret, had the louder echo
Buckingham had been in love with three
Queens
By the means of a hundred pistoles
down, and vast promises
Civil war as not powerful enough to
conclude a peace
Civil war is one of those complicated
diseases
Clergy always great examples of slavish
servitude
Confounded the most weighty with the
most trifling
Contempt—the most dangerous disease of
any State
Dangerous to refuse presents from one's
superiors
Distinguished between bad and worse,
good and better
Fading flowers, which are fragrant
to-day and offensive tomorrow
False glory and false modesty
Fool in adversity and a knave in
prosperity
Fools yield only when they cannot help
it
Good news should be employed in
providing against bad
He weighed everything, but fixed on
nothing
He knew how to put a good gloss upon
his failings
He had not a long view of what was
beyond his reach
Help to blind the rest of mankind, and
they even become blinder
His ideas were infinitely above his
capacity
His wit was far inferior to his courage
Impossible for her to live without
being in love with somebody
Inconvenience of popularity
Insinuation is of more service than
that of persuasion
Is there a greater in the world than
heading a party?
Kinds of fear only to be removed by
higher degrees of terror
Laws without the protection of arms
sink into contempt
Man that supposed everybody had a back
door
Maxims showed not great regard for
virtue
Mazarin: embezzling some nine millions
of the public money
Men of irresolution are apt to catch at
all overtures
More ambitious than was consistent with
morality
My utmost to save other souls, though I
took no care of my own
Need of caution in what we say to our
friends
Neither capable of governing nor being
governed
Never had woman more contempt for
scruples and ceremonies
Nothing is so subject to delusion as
piety
Oftener deceived by distrusting than by
being overcredulous
One piece of bad news seldom comes
singly
Only way to acquire them is to show
that we do not value them
Passed for the author of events of
which I was only the prophet
Poverty so well became him
Power commonly keeps above ridicule
Pretended to a great deal more wit than
came to his share
Queen was adored much more for her
troubles than for her merit
She had nothing but beauty, which cloys
when it comes alone
So indiscreet as to boast of his
successful amours
Strongest may safely promise to the
weaker what he thinks fit
The subdivision of parties is generally
the ruin of all
The wisest fool he ever saw in his life
Those who carry more sail than ballast
Thought he always stood in need of
apologies
Transitory honour is mere smoke
Treated him as she did her petticoat
Useful man in a faction because of his
wonderful complacency
Vanity to love to be esteemed the first
author of things
Verily believed he was really the man
which he affected to be
Virtue for a man to confess a fault
than not to commit one
We are far more moved at the hearing of
old stories
Weakening and changing the laws of the
land
Who imagine the head of a party to be
their master
Whose vivacity supplied the want of
judgment
Wisdom in affairs of moment is nothing
without courage
With a design to do good, he did evil
Yet he gave more than he promised
You must know that, with us Princes,
words go for nothing
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[Memoirs of Cardinal De Retz]
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