Klemens von Metternich Quotes

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

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.

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

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.

When Paris sneezes, Europe catches a cold.

Ten million ignorances do not constitute one knowledge.

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.

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

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

The obvious is always least understood.

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

Stability is not immobility.

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

When France sneezes, all of Europe catches cold.

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

Error has never approached my spirit.

Italy is only a geographical expression.

Italy is a geographical expression.