Jean François Paul de Gondi, cardinal de Retz (29 September 1613 – 24 August 1679) was a French churchman, writer of memoirs, and agitator in the Fronde.
Every man whom chance alone has, by some accident, made a public character, hardly ever fails of becoming, in a short time, a ridiculous private one.
Nothing indicates the soundness of a man's judgment so much as knowing how to choose between two disadvantages.
If you have to make an unpopular speech, give it all the sincerity you can muster; that's the only way to sweeten it.
When you are obliged to make a statement that you know will cause displeasure, you must say it with every appearance of sincerity; this is the only way to make it palatable.
It's easier to fight one's enemies than to get on with one's friends.
There are no small steps in great affairs.
The man who can own up to his error is greater than he who merely knows how to avoid making it.
In a major matter no details are small.
Most men only commit great crimes because of their scruples about petty ones.
A man who doesn't trust himself can never really trust anyone else.
A man who does not trust himself will never really trust anybody.
A man who never trusts himself never trusts anyone.
Weak souls always set to work at the wrong time.
Persecution to persons in a high rank stands them in the stead of eminent virtue.
Every numerous assembly is a mob; everything there depends on instantaneous turns.
What is necessary is never a risk.
Where princes are concerned, a man who is able to do good is as dangerous and almost as criminal as a man who intends to do evil.