Quote from Talleyrand

"We have learned, a little late no doubt, that for states as for individuals real wealth consists not in acquiring or invading the domains of others, but in developing one's own. We have learned that all extensions of territory, all usurpation's, by force or by fraud, which have long been connected by prejudice with the idea of 'rank,' of 'hegemony,' of 'political stability,' of 'superiority' in the order of the Powers, are only the cruel jests of political lunacy, false estimates of power, and that their real effect is to increase the difficulty of administration and to diminish the happiness and security of the governed for the passing interest or for the vanity of those who govern...

Having just finished a book about Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, defending his skills as a statesman but acknowledging his political twists and turns which enabled him to survive and be a part of several revolutions, I found this quote by him illuminating. The book by Crane Brinton, "The Lives of Talleyrand" sought to explain his view of men this way. There is a gap between men's appetites and their aspirations. It would not be wise to forget their appetites or to fail to use the aspirations to motivate men to act in certain ways contrary to their own ambitions.

But whether the man was a traitor (having acted as a spy against Napoleon, a corrupt opportunist, seeking bribes from the Americans in the XYZ affair or an unbelieving priest and bishop of the Catholic Church, he did seem to understand human nature and guided his actions accordingly.

I think the quote today is as true now as when he made it. We don't have to love the man to admire his summation of bad policy for an individual or a country.