Monarchs Quotes

• I would rather obey a fine lion, much stronger than myself, than two hundred rats of my own species.

  Voltaire

  Two, Stronger, Lions

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• Of the various forms of government which have prevailed in the world, an hereditary monarchy seems to present the fairest scope for ridicule.

  Edward Gibbon

  Government, History, British Monarchy

  Edward Gibbon (1821). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.197

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• Democracy is the power of equal votes for unequal minds

  Charles I of England

  Kings, Power, Voting

  "Columbia Dictionary of Quotations". P. 76, 1989.

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• A monarchy is the most expensive of all forms of government, the regal state requiring a costly parade, and he who depends on his own power to rule, must strengthen that power by bribing the active and enterprising whom he cannot intimidate.

  James F. Cooper

  Power, Government, Intimidating

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• Royalty is a government in which the attention of the nation is concentrated on one person doing interesting actions.

  Walter Bagehot

  Government, Kings And Queens, Interesting

  'The English Constitution' (1867) 'The Monarchy'

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• There is nothing about which I am more anxious than my country, and for its sake I am willing to die ten deaths, if that be possible.

  Elizabeth I

  Country, Sake, Anxious

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• Constitutions become the ultimate tyranny," Paul said. "They’re organized power on such a scale as to be overwhelming. The constitution is social power mobilized and it has no conscience. It can crush the highest and the lowest, removing all dignity and individuality. It has an unstable balance point and no limitations.

  Frank Herbert

  Crush, Individuality, Balance

  Frank Herbert (2008). “Dune Messiah”, p.54, Penguin

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• If a nation does not want a monarchy, change the nation's mind. If a nation does not need a monarchy, change the nation's needs.

  Jan Smuts

  Mind, Doe, Needs

  Remark to Princess Frederica of Greece. "Now You Know Royalty". Book by Doug Lennox, p. 57, 2009.

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• Atheism leads a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation: all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue.

  Francis Bacon

  Atheist, Philosophy, Men

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• When Monarchs abuse the rights with which they have been invested by the confidence of the people, and bring down upon their heads the calamity of war, the people have the right to withdraw their allegiance.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  War, Rights, People

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• When a wicked and unworthy subject annoyed the Sultan of Turkey or the Czar of Russia, he had his head cut of without much ceremony; but when the same happened in England, the monarch declared : "We are not amused".

  George Mikes

  Funny, Humorous, Cutting

  George Mikes (1986). “How to be a Brit: The Classic Bestselling Guide”, p.46, Penguin UK

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• I need no bodyguard at all, for even the bravest men who approach me get weak at the knees and their hearts turn to water, whilst their heads become giddy and incapable of thinking as the sweat of fear paralyzes them.

  Shaka

  Fear, Heart, Men

  "Shaka Zulu : The Rise of the Zulu Empire". Book by E. A. Ritter, p. 319, 1955.

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• Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the world.

  Wilhelm II

  Funny, Kings, Women

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• When is conduct a crime, and when is a crime not a crime? When "Somebody Up There" - a monarch, a dictator, a Pope, a legislator - so decrees.

  Jessica Mitford

  Government, Prison, Dictator

  Jessica Mitford (1973). “Kind and usual punishment: the prison business”, Not Avail

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• All things are subject to decay and when fate summons, monarchs must obey.

  John Dryden

  Death, Fate, Decay

  'MacFlecknoe' (1682) l. 1

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• God doth not govern the world only by his will as an absolute monarch, but by his wisdom and goodness as a tender father. It is not his greatest pleasure to show his sovereign power, or his inconceivable wisdom, but his immense goodness, to which he makes the other attributes subservient.

  Stephen Charnock

  God, Father, World

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• Jordan has a strange, haunting beauty and a sense of timelessness. Dotted with the ruins of empires once great, it is the last resort of yesterday in the world of tomorrow. I love every inch of it.

  King Hussein I

  Beauty, Country, Yesterday

  "The Arab World", Arab Information Center, p. 30, 1965.

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• I think most presidents are amazed at the overwhelming responsibility they have when they enter office and the tremendous amount of work there is. See, a modern president has far more responsibility than a president years ago. And if I were rewriting the Constitution, I would suggest a president be more like a monarch and then have a prime minister under him.

  Billy Graham

  Responsibility, Thinking, Years

  "Tony Snow Interviews Billy Graham". "Fox News Sunday" with Tony Snow, www.deceptioninthechurch.com. January 2, 2000.

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• 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

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• Know, Nature's children all divide her care, The fur that warms a monarch warmed a bear.

  Alexander Pope

  Nature, Children, Science

  Alexander Pope, John Wilson Croker (1871). “The Works: Including Several Hundred Unpublished Letters, and Other New Materials”, p.403

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• 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

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• We don't know how Cleopatra spent her days, but we do know how other Hellenistic monarchs spent their days. There has been a great amount of scholarship in the last 30 years about education in the Hellenistic world and women in the Hellenistic world. We now know how an upper-class woman was educated in her day.

  Stacy Schiff

  Years, Class, World

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• If a man were living in isolation his income would be literally his product. Make him the monarch and owner of an island, and the fruits that he raises and the clothing that he makes constitute, in themselves, his income. This ceases to be true when trading begins.

  John Bates Clark

  Men, Islands, Income

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• All monarchs I hate, and the thrones they sit on,
  From the hector of France to the cully of Britain.

  John Wilmot

  Hate, Thrones, France

  John Wilmot, John Adlard (2002). “The Debt to Pleasure: John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, in the Eyes of His Contemporaries and in His Own Poetry and Prose”, p.74, Taylor & Francis

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• Those who imagine that a politician would make a better figurehead than a hereditary monarch might perhaps make the acquaintance of more politicians.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Might, Imagine, Politician

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