Emperor Quotes - Page 5

• [On Napoleon:] The Emperor is too grand for anybody to tell him the truth, everybody who surrounds him flatters him all day long.

  Josephine de Beauharnais

  Long, Surround

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• In reality, a person questioning the existence of the Satanic conspiracy is merely pointing out that the emperor is wearing no clothes. In that case, one can understand why the emperor's tailors get upset and suggest the person doing the pointing is a tool of the devil. Then the question comes down to one of whether the crowd will believe the evidence they have before them, or if they will buy into the tailors' fantasies.

  Michael A. Stackpole

  Believe, Reality, Clothes

  "The Pulling Report". limsk.tripod.com. 1990.

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• The imprudent Maximus disregarded these salutary considerations: he gratified his resentment and ambition; he saw the bleeding corpse of Valentinian at his feet; and he heard himself saluted Emperor by the unanimous voice of the senate and people. But the day of his inauguration was the last day of his happiness.

  Edward Gibbon

  Ambition, Voice, Feet

  Edward Gibbon (2015). “History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire V3: the History Focus”, p.235, 谷月社

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• Titus Andronicus, my lord the Emperor
  Sends thee this word, that, if thou love thy sons,
  Let Marcus, Lucius, or thyself, old Titus,
  Or any one of you, chop off your hand
  And send it to the King: he for the same
  Will send thee hither both thy sons alive,
  And that shall be the ransom for their fault.

  William Shakespeare

  Kings, Son, Hands

  William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens, Isaac Reed (1819). “Henry V. King Henry VI, part 1. King Henry VI, part 2. King Henry VI, part 3. King Richard III. King Henry VIII. Troilus and Cressida. Timon of Athens. Coriolanus. Julius Caesar. Antony and Cleopatra. Cymbeline. Titus Andronicus. Pericles. King Lear. Romeo and Juliet. Hamlet. Othello”, p.419

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• In the reign of the Greek Emperor Justinian , and again in the reign of Phocas , the Bishop of Rome obtained some dominion over the Greek Churches, but of no long continuance. His standing dominion was only over the nations of the Western Empire, represented by Daniel's fourth Beast.

  Isaac Newton

  Rome, Long, Greek

  Isaac Newton “Observations”, Lulu.com

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• Smiting enemies has always been so admired that, unlike medicine or archaeology, it entitled its successful practitioners to become kings, emperors, and presidents.

  Barbara Holland

  Kings, Successful, Medicine

  Barbara Holland (1999). “Wasn't the Grass Greener?: A Curmudgeon's Fond Memories”, Harcourt

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• The distinctions of personal merit and influence, so conspicuous in a republic, so feeble and obscure under a monarchy, were abolished by the despotism of the emperors; who substituted in their room a severe subordination of rank and office, from the titled slaves who were seated on the steps of the throne, to the meanest instruments of arbitrary power.

  Edward Gibbon

  History, Office, Thrones

  Edward Gibbon (2009). “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition”, p.325, Modern Library

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• In a certain reign there was a lady not of the first rank whom the emperor loved more than any of the others. The grand ladies with high ambitions thought her a presumptuous upstart, and lesser ladies were still more resentful. Everything she did offended someone.

  Murasaki Shikibu

  Book, Ambition, Reign

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• It becomes an emperor to die standing (i.e., "in harness").
  [Lat., Decet imperatorem statem mori.]

  Vespasian

  Death, Harness, Standing

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• We stand in need of such reflections to comfort us for the loss of some illustrious characters, which in our eyes might have seemed the most worthy of the heavenly present. The names of Seneca, of the elder and the younger Pliny, of Tacitus, of Plutarch, of Galen, of the slave Epictetus, and of the emperor Marcus Antoninus, adorn the age in which they flourished, and exalt the dignity of human natures.

  Edward Gibbon

  Character, Eye, Loss

  Edward Gibbon (2016). “EDWARD GIBBON Premium Collection: Historiographical Works, Memoirs & Letters: Including "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.583, e-artnow

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• The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence: the Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved on the emperors all the executive powers of government. During a happy period (A.D. 98-180) of more than fourscore years, the public administration was conducted by the virtue and abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines.

  Edward Gibbon

  Two, Government, Years

  Edward Gibbon (2009). “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition”, p.48, Modern Library

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• The victory of the Church over the power which was embodied in the Roman imperial system was not won by seizing the levers of power: it was won when the victims knelt down in the Colosseum and prayed in the name of Jesus for the Emperor.

  Lesslie Newbigin

  Jesus, Names, Victory

  Lesslie Newbigin (1989). “The Gospel in a Pluralist Society”, p.275, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• In the Eleusinian mysteries, they would always warn people, "if you go in here, your ego will die. You're going to have to confront all your past hang-ups, strip them off, and be a changed person." One emperor of Rom who wanted to be initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries said, "That's interesting, I approve of what you're doing, but I don't want to be changed.

  Timothy Leary

  Past, People, Interesting

  Timothy Leary (2001). “Your Brain Is God”, p.84, Ronin Publishing

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• Follow the road behind the Emperor. We must build the world for Japan's sake, heaven ordered Japan to achieve this great mission.

  Kingoro Hashimoto

  Japan, Heaven, World

  "The China Monthly Review", vol. 106-107, p. 41, 1947.

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• Each suburban housewife spends her time presiding over a power plant sufficient to have staffed the palace of a Roman emperor with a hundred slaves.

  Margaret Mead

  Women, Palaces, Slave

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• Back in the day, when the emperor or the king or whatever waged war, they went to war, too. But that's been lost in time.

  Daron Malakian

  Kings, War, Wages

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• It's impossible to tell what's going on at any given moment in Tomb of the Dragon Emperor; it's even harder to care about being able to tell.

  Stephanie Zacharek

  Dragons, Care, Able

  "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor". www.salon.com. August 01, 2008.

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• Not only is the Napoleonic dream stronger today in our imaginations than it has ever been, but one can already feel the slow falling away of moral opprobrium from our memory of Hitler. In another fifty years we may well find ourselves weighed down by a second monstrous dream of pure grandeur to match that of the Emperor. Two men who dared. Two men who were adored. Two men who led with brilliance. Two men who administered fairly and efficiently. Two men who were modest in their own needs but surrounded by lesser beings who profited from their situation and came between the Hero and the people.

  John Ralston Saul

  Dream, Memories, Fall

  John Ralston Saul (2013). “Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West”, p.74, Simon and Schuster

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• Most of the great works of juvenile literature are subversive in one way or another: they express ideas and emotions not generally approved of or even recognized at the time; they make fun of honored figures and piously held beliefs; and they view social pretenses with clear-eyed directness, remarking - as in Andersen's famous tale - that the emperor has no clothes.

  Alison Lurie

  Fun, Views, Ideas

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• How many emperors and how many princes have lived and died and no record of them remains, and they only sought to gain dominions and riches in order that their fame might be ever-lasting.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Order, Records, Might

  Leonardo da Vinci (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Leonardo da Vinci (Illustrated)”, p.965, Delphi Classics

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• When the first emperor wanted to unify the country, one of the major policies was to create one system of written signs. By force, brutal force, he eliminated all the other scripts. One script became the official script. All the others were banned. And those who used other scripts were punished severely. And then the meanings of all the characters, over the centuries, had to be kept uniform as a part of the political apparatus. So from the very beginning the written word was a powerful political tool.

  Ha Jin

  Country, Powerful, Character

  "Ha Jin, The Art of Fiction No. 202". Interview with Sarah Fay, www.theparisreview.org. 2009.

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• FAUSTUS. Had I as many souls as there be stars, I'd give them all for Mephistophilis. By him I'll be great emperor of the world, And make a bridge thorough the moving air, To pass the ocean with a band of men; I'll join the hills that bind the Afric shore, And make that country continent to Spain, And both contributory to my crown: The Emperor shall not live but by my leave, Nor any potentate of Germany. Now that I have obtain'd what I desir'd, I'll live in speculation of this art, Till Mephistophilis return again.

  Christopher Marlowe

  Country, Art, Stars

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Christopher Marlowe (2010). “Faust, Part I, Egmont and Hermann, Dorothea, Dr Faustus: The Five Foot Shelf of Classics, Vol. XIX (in 51 Volumes)”, p.209, Cosimo, Inc.

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• I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone.

  Charlie Chaplin

  Sorry, Want, Dictator

  "Fictional character: Hynkel (Dictator of Tomania / A Jewish Barber)". "The Great Dictator", www.imdb.com. October 15, 1940.

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• Through a historical catastrophe - the destruction of Jerusalem by the emperor of Rome - I was born in one of the cities in the diaspora. But I always deemed myself a child of Jerusalem, one who is in reality a native of Jerusalem.

  Shmuel Yosef Agnon

  Children, Reality, Rome

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• Christians aren't making a religious claim when they say Jesus rose from the grave. They're making a historical one; they're saying that this thing happened just as surely and really as it happened that Julius Caesar became emperor of Rome. It's the kind of claim that can be thought about and investigated; it can be judged.

  Greg Gilbert

  Christian, Religious, Jesus

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