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In good King Charles's golden days
When royalty no harm meant,
A zealous high-churchman was I,
And so I got preferment.
Author: Old Song
Source: Vicar of Bray, written before 1710
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Knowest thou not that kings have long hands?
[Lat., An nescis longos regibus esse manus?]
Author: Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso)
Source: Heroides (XVII, 166)
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It is something to hold the scepter with a firm hand.
[Lat., Est aliquid valida sceptra tenere manu.]
Author: Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso)
Source: Remedia Amoris (480)
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The King is dead! Long live the King!
Author: Julia Pardoe
Source: Life of Louis XIV (vol. III, p. 457)
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But all's to no end, for the time will not mend
Till the King enjoys his own again.
Author: Martyn Parker
Source: Upon Defacing of White-Hall
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What is a king? a man condemn'd to bear
The public burthen of the nation's care.
Author: Matthew Prior
Source: Solomon (bk. III, l. 275)
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To know how to dissemble is the knowledge of kings.
[Fr., Savoir dissimuler est le savoir des rois.]
Author: Armand Jean du Plessis Duc de Richelieu
Source: Miranne
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Der Kaiser of dis Faderland,
Und Gott on high all dings commands,
We two--ach! Don't you understand?
Myself--und Gott.
Author: Alexander McGregor Rose (used pseudonym A.M.R. Gordon)
Source: Kaiser & Co., later called Hoch der Kaiser, published in the Montreal "Herald", Oct. 1897, after the
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When kings are building, draymen have something to do.
[Ger., Wenn die Konige bau'n, haben die Karrner zu thun.]
Author: Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
Source: Kant und Seine Ausleger
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For monarchs seldom sigh in vain.
Author: Sir Walter Scott
Source: Marmion (canto V, st. 9)
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O Richard! O my king!
The universe forsakes thee!
Author: Michel Jean Sedaine
Source: Richard Coeur de Lion--Blondel's Song
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The first art to be learned by a ruler is to endure envy.
[Lat., Ars prima regni posse te invidiam pati.]
Author: Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Source: Hercules Furens (CCCLIII)
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The throne of another is not stable for thee.
[Lat., Alieno in loco
Haud stabile regnum est.]
Author: Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Source: Hercules Furens (CCCXLIV)
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Every monarch is subject to a mightier one.
[Lat., Omnes sub regno graviore regnum est.]
Author: Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Source: Hercules Furens (DCXIV)
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His legs bestrid the ocean: his reared arm
Crested the world: his voice was propertied
As all the tuned spheres, and that to friends;
But when he meant to quail and shake the orb,
He was as rattling thunder.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Antony and Cleopatra (Cleopatra at V, ii)
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The gates of monarchs
Are arched so high that giants may jet through
And keep their impious turbans on without
Good morrow to the sun.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Cymbeline (Belarius at III, iii)
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There's such divinity doth hedge a king
That treason can but peep to what it would,
Acts little of his will.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Claudius, King of Denmark at IV, v)
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Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: King Henry the Fourth, Part II (King Henry at III, i)
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And fearless minds climb soonest unto crowns.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: King Henry the Sixth, Part III (Richard, Duke of Gloucester at IV, vii)
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Ay, every inch a king.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: King Lear (King Lear at IV, vi)
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O, how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors!
There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have;
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Life of King Henry the Eighth (Wolsey at III, ii)
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At length her grace rose and with modest paces
Came to the altar, where she kneeled, and saint-like
Cast her fair eyes to heaven and prayed devoutly;
Then rose again and bowed her to the people;
When by the Archbishop of Canterbury
She had all the royal makings of a queen,
As holy oil, Edward Confessor's crown,
The rod, and bird of peace, and all such emblems
Laid nobly on her; which performed, the choir
With all the choicest music of the kingdom
Together sung 'Te Deum.' So she parted
And with the same full state packed back again
To York Place, where the feast is held.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Life of King Henry the Eighth (Third Gentleman at IV, i)
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Every subject's duty is the king's, but every subject's soul is
his own.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Life of King Henry the Fifth (King Henry at IV, i)
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The king-becoming graces,
As justice, verity, temp'rance, stableness,
Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,
I have no relish of them, but abound
In the division of each several crime,
Acting in many ways.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Macbeth (Malcolm at IV, iii)
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A substitute shines brightly as a king
Until a king be by, and then his state
Empties itself, as dot an inland brook
Into the main of waters.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Merchant of Venice (Portia at V, i)
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We will ourself in person to this war;
And, for our coffers, with too great a court
And liberal largess, are grown somewhat light,
We are enforced to farm our royal realm,
The revenue whereof shall furnish us
For our affairs in hand.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Tragedy of King Richard the Second (King Richard at I, iv)
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For God's sake let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings!
How some have been deposed, some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed,
Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed--
All murdered; for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court; and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp;
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks;
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life
Were brass impregnable; and humored thus,
Comes at the last, and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!
Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence, Throw away respect,
Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty;
For you have but mistook me all this while.
I live with bread like you, feel want, taste grief,
Need friends. Subjected thus,
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Tragedy of King Richard the Second (King Richard at III, ii)
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Yet looks he like a king. Behold, his eye,
As bright as is the eagle's lightens forth
Controlling majesty.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Tragedy of King Richard the Second (York at III, iii)
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I give this heavy weight from off my head
And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
The pride of kingly sway from out my heart.
With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
With mine own hands I give away my crown,
With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
With mine own breath release all duty's rites.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Tragedy of King Richard the Second (King Richard at IV, i)
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Why, our battalia trebles that account:
Besides, the king's name is a tower of strength,
Which they upon the adverse faction want.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Tragedy of King Richard the Third (King Richard at V, iii)
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Kings are like stars--they rise and set, they have
The worship of the world, but no repose.
Author: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Source: Hellas--Mahmud to Hassan (l. 195)
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Hail, glorious edifice, stupendous work!
God bless the Regent, and the Duke of York.
Author: Horace Smith and James Smith
Source: Rejected Addresses--Loyal Effusion (l. 1)
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A prince, the moment he is crown'd,
Inherits every virtue sound,
As emblems of the sovereign power,
Like other baubles in the Tower:
Is generous, valiant, just, and wise,
And so continues till he dies.
Author: Jonathan Swift
Source: On Poetry (l. 191)
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Hener was the hero-king,
Heaven-born, dear to us,
Showing his shield
A shelter for peace.
Author: Esaias Tegner
Source: Fridthjof's Saga (canto XXI, st. 7)
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In that fierce light which beats upon a throne.
Author: Lord Alfred Tennyson
Source: Idylls of the King--Dedication (l. 26)
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Broad-based upon her people's will,
And compassed by the inviolate sea.
Author: Lord Alfred Tennyson
Source: To the Queen (st. 9)
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Titles are abolished; and the American Republic swarms with men
claiming and bearing them.
Author: William Makepeace Thackeray
Source: Roundabout Papers--On Ribbons
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The king reigns but does not govern.
[Fr., Le roi regne, il ne gouverne pas.]
Author: Louis Adolphe Thiers
Source: in a number of earlier editions of the "National", before dissolution of the monarchy
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All kings is mostly rapscallions.
Author: Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (ch. 23)
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The first king was a successful soldier;
He who serves well his country has no need of ancestors.
[Fr., Le premier qui fut roi, fut un soldat heureux;
Qui sert bien son pays, n'a pas besoin d'aleux.]
Author: Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire)
Source: Merope (I, 3)
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Here lies our mutton-looking king,
Whose word no man relied on,
Who never said a foolish thing
No ever did a wise one.
Author: John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester
Source: another version of Rochester's Epitaph on Charles II included in the works of Quarles
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Here lies our sovereign lord, the king,
Whose word no man relives on,
Who never said a foolish thing,
And never did a wise one.
Author: John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester
Source: to Charles II, who answered, "That is very true, for my words are my own. My actions are my minister
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A merry monarch, scandalous and poor.
Author: John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester
Source: On the King
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Hail to the crown by Freedom shaped--to gird
An English sovereign's brow! and to the throne
Whereon he sits! whose deep foundations lie
In veneration and the people's love.
Author: William Wordsworth
Source: Excursion (bk. IV)
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A partial world will list to my lays,
While Anna reigns, and sets a female name
Unrival'd in the glorious lists of fame.
Author: Edward Young
Source: Force of Religion (bk. I, l. 6)
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A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in.
Author: Frederick The Great of Prussia
Source: None
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Like all the best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters and of family disagreements.
Author: Elizabeth II
Source: None
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Kings are earth's gods; in vice their law's their will.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: None
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Ah, if I were not king, I should lose my temper.
Author: Louis XIV
Source: None
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