Klemens von Metternich Quotes
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I made history and therefore did not find time to write it.
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When Paris sneezes, Europe catches cold.
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Italy is a geographical expression.
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But what did he mean by that?
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Men like M. de Talleyrand are like sharp instruments with which it is dangerous to play.
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Any plan conceived in moderation must fail when the circumstances are set in extremes.
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Strength in Right
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The events which can not be prevented, must be directed.
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Stability is not immobility.
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It is useless to close the gates against ideas; they overlap them.
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Ten million ignorances do not constitute one knowledge.
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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.
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Error has never approached my spirit.
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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.
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I came into the world either too early or too late; at present, I am good for nothing.
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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.
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When France sneezes, all of Europe catches cold.
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The obvious is always least understood.
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The men who make history have not time to write it.
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In Europe democracy is a falsehood. I do not know where it will end, but it cannot end in a quiet old age.