37 Cardinal Richelieu Quotes

Cardinal Richelieu quotes

1. Qu'on me donne six lignes ecrites de la main du plus honnete homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.

2. Pour tromper un rival l'artifice est permis; on peut tout employer contres ses ennemis.

3. Savoir dissimuler est le savoir des rois.

4. Carry on any enterprise as if all future success depends on it.

5. Had Luther and Calvin been confined before they had begun to dogmatize, the states would have been spared many troubles.

6. Harshness towards individuals who flout the laws and commands of state is for the public good; no greater crime against the public interest is possible than to show leniency to those who violate it.

7. I have never had any [enemies] other than those of the state.

8. I have the consolation of leaving your kingdom in the highest degree of glory and of reputation.

9. Never write a letter and never destroy one

10. One must believe neither the people of the palace, who ordinarily measure the power of the king by the shape of his crown, which, being round, has no end, nor those who, in the excesses of an indiscreet zeal, proclaim themselves openly as partisans of Rome.

11. Reason must be the universal rule and guide; all things must be done according to reason without allowing oneself to be swayed by emotion.

12. Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of state.

13. War is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men.

1. To know how to disguise is the knowledge of kings.

2. I was excellent. Everybody loved me. I love myself, and I like bums.

3. Give me six lines written by the most honorable of men, and I will find an excuse in them to hang him.

4. If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.

5. Bakers of bread rolls and pastry cooks will not buy grain before eleven o'clock in winter and noon in summer; bakers of large loaves will not buy grain before two o'clock. This will enable the people of the town to obtain their supply first. Bakers shall put a distinctive trademark on their loaves, and keep weights and scales in their shops, under penalty of having their licenses removed.

6. When people are too comfortable, it is not possible to restrain them within the bounds of their duty? They may be compared to mules who, being accustomed to burdens, are spoilt by rest rather than labour.

7. I do not sleep to let others sleep in the shade of my waking.

8. Happy is the man who dreams dreams, and is prepared topay the price to make them come true.

9. Wise judges are we of each other!

10. Nothing so upholds the laws as the punishment of persons whose rank is as great as their crime.

11. If God forbade drinking, would He have made wine so good?

12. A single word has sometimes lost or won an empire.

13. To mislead a rival, deception is permissable; one may use all means against his enemies.

14. First, all means to conciliate; failing that, all means to crush.

15. Did you think I was immortal?

16. Give me six lines written by the most honorable person alive, and I shall find enough in them to condemn them to the gallows.

17. Friendship is the medicine for all misfortune; but ingratitude dries up the fountain of all goodness.

18. Nothing is as dangerous for the state as those who would govern kingdoms with maxims found in books.

19. We may employ artifice to deceive a rival, anything against our enemies.

20. A virtuous and well-disposed person, like a good metal, the more he is fired, the more he is fined; the more he is opposed, the more he is approved: wrongs may well try him, and touch him, but cannot imprint in him any false stamp.

21. Not the least of the qualities that go into the making of a great ruler is the ability of letting others serve him.

22. Bakers of bread rolls and pastry cooks will not buy grain before eleven o'clock in winter and noon in summer.

23. “Man is immortal, his salvation is hereafter, The state has no immortality, its salvation is now or never”

24. Who will be my equal?