Armand Jean du Plessis,
Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu et de Fronsac
The quotation is also disputed:
Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites
de la main du plus honnête homme,
j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
If you give me six lines written
by the hand of the most honest of men,
I will find something in them which
will hang him.
Édouard Fournier, in L'Espirit dans l'Historie (1867), 3rd edition, Ch. 51, p. 260, disputes the traditional attribution, and suggests various agents of Richelieu might have been the actual author.
Comments
Du Plessis said, give me 5 sentences written by the most honest of men and I will find something in them to hang him.
The more things change, the more they stay the same...
Better known as Cardinal Richelieu:
The quotation is also disputed: Édouard Fournier, in L'Espirit dans l'Historie (1867), 3rd edition, Ch. 51, p. 260, disputes the traditional attribution, and suggests various agents of Richelieu might have been the actual author.Source: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cardinal_Richelieu