Monarchs Quotes - Page 2

• Our English monarchs are so unimaginative,” said Eldric. “They execute people in such tediously conventional ways.

  Franny Billingsley

  People, Way, Said

  Franny Billingsley (2013). “Chime”, p.48, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Tax time approaches, and Americans are as always paying H & R Block billions to help them save some of their wealth from their ravenous government. Pitiful, in a way: it underlines the grim but
  unacknowledged fact that the government is their enemy and they have to hire protection from it. But don't we enjoy 'self-government'? Well, if we have it, I'd hardly say we enjoy it. True, we aren't being taxed by the monarch of Great Britain, but our American-born rulers claim far more of our wealth than the British monarchs ever did.

  Joseph Sobran

  Block, Government, Self

  5 Copy quote

• The oak, when living, monarch of the wood; The English oak, which, dead, commands the flood.

  Charles Churchill

  Woods, Flood, Command

  Charles Churchill, Robert Southey (1854). “The Poetical Works of Charles Churchill: With Copious Notes and a Life of the Author”, p.90

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• In the 20th century, the position of the monarch as head of the Church of England was given a meaning which it never had before. You took the fact that the monarch was head of the Church of England to mean that the British monarchy was itself a religious or moral institution and the monarchy became a symbol of national public morality.

  David Starkey

  Religious, Mean, Church

  "What do the cards hold for British royalty?". www.cnn.com. August 19, 1996.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• The reason territorial monarchs failed time after time against maritime powers was not that absolutist, non-consensual governments were incapable of building great fleets in peace - quite the reverse - but that they were unable to fund them in the crises of war. Mainly this was because they were forced to divert resources from the fleet to their armies, to fight territorial rivals frequently financed by their maritime enemy from the profits of sea trade.

  Peter Padfield

  War, Army, Fighting

  4 Copy quote

• There is great weight in the modern times of being monarch, the scrutiny and access is much more than in times gone by.

  George VI

  Gone, Weight, Modern

  32 Copy quote

• Dreams are but interludes, which fancy makes; When monarch reason sleeps, this mimic wakes.

  John Dryden

  Dream, Sleep, Fancy

  John Dryden (1868). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden”, p.362

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Once at a potent leader's voice I stayed; Once I went back when a good monarch prayed; Mortals, howe'er we grieve, howe'er deplore, The flying shadow will return no more.

  Maurice Maeterlinck

  Grieving, Voice, Leader

  4 Copy quote

• A careless song, with a little nonsense in it now and then, does not mis-become a monarch.

  Horace Walpole

  Song, Doe, Littles

  Horace Walpole, Sir Horace Mann (1833). “Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, to Sir Horace Mann, British Envoy at the Court of Tuscany”, p.304

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every wanton and causeless restraint of the will of the subject, whether practiced by a monarch, a nobility, or a popular assembly, is a degree of tyranny.

  William Blackstone

  Degrees, Assembly, Tyranny

  Sir William Blackstone, John Fletcher Hargrave, George Sweet, Sir Richard Couch, William Newland Welsby (1852). “Commentaries on the Laws of England : in Four Books, with an Analysis of the Work”, p.126

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I had no monarch in my life, and cannot rule myself; and when I try to organize, my little force explodes and leaves me bare and charred.

  Emily Dickinson

  Trying, Littles, Force

  Emily Dickinson (2012). “Letters of Emily Dickinson”, p.258, Courier Corporation

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• For monarchs seldom sigh in vain.

  Walter Scott

  Royalty, Vain, Sigh

  Sir Walter Scott, J. W. Lake (1848). “The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott: with a sketch of his life”, p.83

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I affect no contempt for the high eminence he [Senator Stephen Douglas] has reached. So reached, that the oppressed of my species,might have shared with me in the elevation, I would rather stand on that eminence, than wear the richest crown that ever pressed a monarch's brow.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Ambition, Crowns, Might

  4 Copy quote

• Culture implies all which gives the mind possession of its own powers, as languages to the critic, telescope to the astronomer. Culture alters the political status of an individual. It raises a rival royalty in a monarchy. 'Tis king against king. It is ever a romance of history in all dynasties--the co-presence of the revolutionary force in intellect. It creates a personal independence which the monarch cannot look down, and to which he must often succumb.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Kings, Giving, Romance

  10 Copy quote

• Rather I'd choose laboriously to bear A weight of woes, and breathe the vital air, A slave to some poor hind that toils for bread, Than reign the sceptred monarch of the dead.

  Homer

  Air, Toil, Weight

  Homer (1872). “The Iliad ...”, p.412

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• No, let the monarch's bags and others hold
  The flattering, mighty, nay, al-mighty gold.

  John Wolcot

  Gold, Bags, Als

  "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations" by John Bartlett, 10th ed., 1919.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The fundamental difference between Islamic government, on the one hand, and constitutional monarchy and republics, on the other, is this: whereas the representatives of the people or the monarch in such regimes engage in legislation, in Islam the legislative power and competence to establish laws belong exclusively to God Almighty.

  Ruhollah Khomeini

  Islamic, Differences, Government

  150 Copy quote

• ur struggle is not with some monarch named George who inherited the crown - although it often seems that way.

  Edward Kennedy

  Struggle, Crowns, Way

  "Kennedy Speech Defined Ideals". "All Things Considered" with Melissa Block, www.npr.org. August 26, 2009.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am a monarch of God's creation, and you reptiles of the earth dare not oppose me. I render an account of my government to none save God and Jesus Christ.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Jesus, Army, Government

  "The life of Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of the French: with a preliminary view of the French revolution" by Sir Walter Scott, Philadelphia: Leary & Getz, (p. 91), 1857.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• We humans think we are smart, but an orchid, for example, knows how to produce noble, symmetrical flowers, and a snail knows how to make a beautiful, well-proportioned shell. Compared with their knowledge, ours is not worth much at all. We should bow deeply before the orchid and the snail and join our palms reverently before the monarch butterfly and the magnolia tree. The feeling of respect for all species will help us recognize the noblest nature in ourselves.

  Nhat Hanh

  Beautiful, Respect, Nature

  Thich Nhat Hanh “Thich Nhat Hanh: Essential Writings”, Orbis Books

  169 Copy quote

  Show source

• Keep clear of courts: a homely life transcends The vaunted bliss of monarchs and their friends.

  Horace

  Kings, Bliss, Court

  Horace (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Horace (Illustrated)”, p.374, Delphi Classics

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• And when children begin to use their reason, fathers and mothers should take great pains to fill their hearts with the fear of God. This the good Queen Blanche did most earnestly by St. Louis, her son: witness her oft-repeated words, "My son, I would sooner see you die than guilty of a mortal sin;" words which sank so deeply into the saintly monarch's heart, that he himself said there was no day on which they did not recur to his mind, and strengthen him in treading God's ways.

  Saint Francis de Sales

  Mother, Queens, Pain

  10 Copy quote

• In pious times, ere priest-craft did begin, Before polygamy was made a sin; When man, on many, multipli'd his kind, Ere one to one was cursedly confin'd: When Nature prompted, and no Law deni'd Promiscuous use of concubine and bride; Then, Israel's monarch, after Heaven's own heart, His vigorous warmth did variously impart To wives and slaves: and, wide as his command, Scatter'd his Maker's image through the land.

  John Dryden

  Heart, Men, Israel

  John Dryden, “Absalom And Achitophel”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Men choose Hamlet because every man sees himself as a disinherited monarch. Women choose Alice [in Wonderland] because every woman sees herself as the only reasonable creature among crazy people who think they are disinherited monarchs.

  Adam Gopnik

  Crazy, Men, Thinking

  13 Copy quote

• Even monarchs have need of authors, and fear their pens more than ugly women the painter's pencil.

  Baltasar Gracian

  Writing, Needs, Ugly

  Baltasar Gracian (2006). “The Art of Worldly Wisdom”, p.113, Shambhala Publications

  7 Copy quote

  Show source