Daily quote by Congress of Vienna

• Le congrès ne marche pas, il danse.
  • If the Congress does not march, at least it dances.
  • Said of the Vienna Congress which assembled in September 1814, and was made the occasion for a prolonged succession of festivities all through the winter, culminating in Prince Metternich’s ball of 7 March, which was rudely interrupted by the news of Bonaparte’s successful landing in the South of France. The Correspondence of the brothers Grimm (Weimar, 1881) gives under the date of 23 November 1814, a reported saying of the day, attributed to Charles Joseph, Prince de Ligne, Le congrés danse beaucoup, mais il ne marche pas. Georg Büchmann, Geflügelte Worte, 19th ed. (1898), p. 528; Edouard Fournier, L'Esprit dans l'histoire, 5th ed. (1883), pp. 427-8; W. F. H. King, Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), no. 1311; see also: "Congres van Wenen (1814-1815) – Betekenis en gevolgen: Zoeken naar een nieuwe 'balance of power' in Europa", Historiek (14 May 2020)