Cardinal Richelieu Quotes

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

Cardinal Richelieu

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

Cardinal Richelieu

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

Cardinal Richelieu

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

Cardinal Richelieu

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

Cardinal Richelieu

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

Cardinal Richelieu

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

Cardinal Richelieu

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

Cardinal Richelieu

#9. Wise judges are we of each other!

Cardinal Richelieu

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

Cardinal Richelieu

#11. Carry on any enterprise as if all future success depended on it.

Cardinal Richelieu

#12. 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.

Cardinal Richelieu

#13. To know how to disguise is the knowledge of kings.

Cardinal Richelieu

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

Cardinal Richelieu

#15. Never write a letter and never destroy one.

Cardinal Richelieu

#16. First, all means to conciliate; failing that, all means to crush.

Cardinal Richelieu

#17. A single word has sometimes lost or won an empire ...

Cardinal Richelieu

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

Cardinal Richelieu

#19. Who will be my equal?

Cardinal Richelieu

#20. To know how to dissimulate is the knowledge of kings.

Cardinal Richelieu

#21. 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.

Cardinal Richelieu

#22. 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.

Cardinal Richelieu

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

Cardinal Richelieu

#24. Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of state.

Cardinal Richelieu

#25. 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.

Cardinal Richelieu

#26. This Prince of the Church reserved one of his rooms for cats, where overseers fed them chicken pates twice a day. When he died the overseers and cats were provided for.Cardinal Richelieu, who had dozens of cats, built a cattery at Versailles in which to house them.

Cardinal Richelieu

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

Cardinal Richelieu

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

Cardinal Richelieu

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

Cardinal Richelieu

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

Cardinal Richelieu

#31. Did you think I was immortal?

Cardinal Richelieu

#32. To know how to dissemble is the knowledge of kings.
[Fr., Savoir dissimuler est le savoir des rois.]

Cardinal Richelieu