Klemens von Metternich Quotes

• The events which can not be prevented, must be directed.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Events, Can Not

  132 Copy quote

• The word 'freedom' means for me not a point of departure but a genuine point of arrival. The point of departure is defined by the word 'order.' Freedom cannot exist without the concept of order.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Mean, Order, Departure

  133 Copy quote

• I have never feared that the revolution would be engendered by the universities; but that at them a whole generation of revolutionaries must be formed, unless the evil is restrained, seems to me certain.... The greatest and consequently most urgent evil now is the press.... All journals, pamphlets in Germany must be under a censorship.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Evil, History, Generations

  131 Copy quote

• In Europe democracy is a falsehood. I do not know where it will end, but it cannot end in a quiet old age.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Government, Europe, Democracy

  136 Copy quote

• When Paris sneezes, Europe catches a cold.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Europe, Paris, Cold

  128 Copy quote

• Ten million ignorances do not constitute one knowledge.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Ignorance, Knowledge, Democracy

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• The word 'Italy' is a geographical expression, a description which is useful shorthand, but has none of the political significance the efforts of the revolutionary ideologues try to put on it, and which is full of dangers for the very existence of the states which make up the peninsula.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Expression, History, Effort

  115 Copy quote

• I came into the world either too early or too late; at present, I am good for nothing.

  Klemens von Metternich

  History, Too Late, World

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• Any plan conceived in moderation must fail when the circumstances are set in extremes.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Failing, Moderation, Circumstances

  77 Copy quote

• The obvious is always least understood.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Thinking, History, Understanding

  71 Copy quote

• The men who make history have not time to write it.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Writing, Men, History

  53 Copy quote

• Stability is not immobility.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Stability, Security

  51 Copy quote

• It is useless to close the gates against ideas; they overlap them.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Ideas, History, Useless

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• When France sneezes, all of Europe catches cold.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Europe, France, Cold

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• Men like M. de Talleyrand are like sharp instruments with which it is dangerous to play.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Men, Play, History

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• Error has never approached my spirit.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Errors, History, Spirit

  Addressed to Guizot in 1848, in Francois Pierre G. Guizot 'Mèmoires' (1858-1867) vol. 4, p. 21

  40 Copy quote

• Italy is only a geographical expression.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Expression, History

  "Memorandum to the Great Powers" by Klemens Wenzel, August 2, 1814.

  37 Copy quote

• Italy is a geographical expression.

  Klemens von Metternich

  Expression, Individualism

  Discussing the Italian question with Palmerston in 1847. 'Aus dem Nachlasse des Grafen Prokesch- Osten' (1881) vol. 2, p. 343; and Mèmoires, Documents, etc. de 'Metternich publiès par son fils' (1883) vol. 7, p. 415

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