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Home  »  Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men  »  François de Bernis


Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

S.A. Bent, comp. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887.

François de Bernis

  • [A French statesman and ecclesiastic; born 1715; ambassador to Venice, and minister of foreign affairs under Louis XV.; cardinal, archbishop, and ambassador to Rome, where he died, 1794.]

    • I will wait (J’attendrai).

  • His reply to Cardinal Fleury, who had witnessed the irregularity of his early life, and frankly told him at the outset of his career, “You have nothing to expect during my life.” The favor of Madame de Pompadour raised the abbé to the cardinalate after he had “waited” for Fleury’s death.
  • When Cæsar proposed to distribute lands in Campania among the soldiers, Lucius Gellius said it should never be done in his time. “Let us wait a while,” remarked Cicero, “for Gellius requires no very long credit.”


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