The peacemakers of Vienna had attempted to reconstruct a European community in total disregard of the direction in which the Continent was moving

In fact, the peacemakers of Vienna had attempted to reconstruct a European community in total disregard of  the direction in which the Continent was moving. As a result, their new system excluded not only those, such as the liberals and revolutionaries, whom they saw as enemies: it was so thoroughly out of sympathy with the zeitgeist of the times that it alienated most educated people in Europe.

A. Zamoyski, Rites of Peace (2007), 559

Metternich was in his own opinion the light of the world, and he blinded himself with the rays

Metternich was in his own opinion the light of the world, and he blinded himself with the rays reflected in the mirror he held up continuously before his eyes. There was in him a chronic hypertrophy of the ego which developed relentlessly

Albert Sorel, quoted in A. Zamoyski, Rites of Peace (2007), 37