Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (full name German: Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Fürst von Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein; anglicised as Clement Wenceslas Lothar von Metternich-Winneburg-Beilstein; 15 May 1773 – 11 June 1859) was a German-born Austrian politician and statesman and one of the most important diplomats of his era, serving as the Foreign Minister of the Holy Roman Empire and its successor state, the Austrian Empire, from 1809 until the liberal revolutions of 1848 forced his resignation.

Quotes

  • Italy is only a geographical expression.
    • Astarita, Tommaso (2000). Between Salt Water And Holy Water: A History Of Southern Italy. p. 264.
  • I made history and therefore did not find time to write it.
    • Klemens von Metternich, “Mein Politisches Testament”, Aus Metternich’s Nachgelassenen Papieren, 7.Bd, hrsg., R. Metternich-Winneburg (Wien: Wilhelm Braumüller, 1883, pp.633-642.
  • Strength in Right
    • His motto
    • Kraft im Recht (also translated as "Might through Right)
    • Klemens von Metternich, “Mein Politisches Testament”, Aus Metternich’s Nachgelassenen Papieren, 7.Bd, hrsg., R. Metternich-Winneburg (Wien: Wilhelm Braumüller, 1883, pp.633-642.
  • But what did he mean by that?
    • Metternich remarking upon hearing the news of Castlereagh's death by suicide.
    • Greenhalgh, Michael. Marble Past, Monumental Present: Building with Antiquities in the Mediaeval Mediterranean. Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands, 2009 (pp. 20).
  • There is a wide sweep about my mind. I am always above and beyond the preoccupation of most public men; I cover a ground much vaster than they can see. I cannot keep myself from saying about twenty times a day: 'How right I am, and how wrong they are.'
    • Landes, David, The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present. Cambridge, 1969 (p. 353).

Quotes about Metternich

  • Most people associate me with Metternich. And that is childish. My only connection with Metternich is a book I wrote: It was to be the first volume in a lengthy study of the construction and disintegration of international order in the 19th century. The series was to cover the whole period up to World War I, that's all.
    • Henry Kissinger, in interview with Oriana Fallaci, The New Republic (December 16, 1972)
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