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Ten poor men sleep in peace on one straw heap, as Saadi sings,
But the immensest empire is too narrow for two kings.
Author: William R. Alger
Source: Oriental Poetry--Elbow Room
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Princes are like to heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil
times; and which have much veneratoin, but no rest.
Author: Francis Bacon
Source: Essays--Of Empire
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Unhappy France! Unhappy King!
[Fr., Malheureuse France! Malheureux roi!]
Author: Etienne Bequet
Source: heading in the "Journal des Debats", when Charles X was driven from the throne
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And in the years he reigned; through all the country wide,
There was no cause for weeping, save when the good man died.
[Fr., Ce n'est que lorsqu'il expira
Que le peuple, qui l'enterra pleura.]
Author: Pierre Jean de Beranger
Source: Le Roi Yvetot, rendering of Thackeray's "King of Brentford"
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And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?
intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedest the Egyptian? And
Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.
Author: Bible
Source: Exodus (ch. II, v. 14)
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Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom
there is no help.
Author: Bible
Source: Psalms (ch. CXLVI, v. 3)
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The king reigns but does not govern.
[Ger., Der Konig herrscht aber regiert nicht.]
Author: Karl Otto von Schonhausen Bismarck
Source: in a debate in the Reichstag, but he denied the application of the maxim to Germany
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The Prussian Sovereigns are in possession of a crown not be the
grace of the people, but by God's grace.
Author: Karl Otto von Schonhausen Bismarck
Source: Speech in the Prussian Parliament
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That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental
principle of the English constitution.
Author: Karl Otto von Schonhausen Bismarck
Source: Speech in the Prussian Parliament
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The king never dies.
Author: Sir William Blackstone
Source: Commentaries (IV, 249), also Broom's Legal Maxims (max. 50)
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Many a crown
Covers bald foreheads.
Author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Source: Aurora Leigh (bk. I, l. 754)
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I dare be bold, you're one of those
Have took the covenant,
With cavaliers are cavaliers
And with the saints, a saint.
Author: Samuel Butler (1)
Source: The Tale of the Cobbler and the Vicar of Bray
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Whatever I can say or do.
I'm sure not much avails;
I shall still Vicar be of Bray,
Whichever side prevails.
Author: Samuel Butler (1)
Source: Tale of the Cobbler and the Vicar of Bray, in posthumous works
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I loved no King since Forty One
When Prelacy went down,
A Cloak and Band I then put on,
And preached against the Crown.
Author: Samuel Butler (1)
Source: The Turn-Coat, in posthumous works
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God bless the King--I mean the faith's defender;
God bless (no harm in blessing) the pretender;
But who the pretender is, or who is King--
God bless us all--that's quite another thing.
Author: John Byrom
Source: Miscellaneous Pieces
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Every noble crown is, and on Earth will forever be, a crown of
thorns.
Author: Thomas Carlyle
Source: Past and Present (bk. III, ch. VIII)
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I shall be an autocrat: that's my trade. And the good Lord will
forgive me: that's his.
[Fr., Moi, je serai autocrate: c'est mon metier. Et le bon Dieu
me pardonnnera: c'est son metier.]
Author: Thomas Carlyle
Source: Past and Present (bk. III, ch. VIII)
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That man is deceived who thinks it slavery to live under an
excellent prince. Never does liberty appear in a more gracious
form than under a pious king.
[Lat., Fallitur egregio quisquis sub principe credet
Servitutem. Nunquam libertas gratior extat
Quam sub rege pio.]
Author: Claudian (Claudianus)
Source: De Laudibus Stilichonis (III, 113)
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'Tis a very fine thing to be father-in-law
To a very magnificent three-tailed bashaw.
Author: George Colman ("The Younger")
Source: Blue Beard (act III, sc. 4)
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Clemency is the surest proof of a true monarch.
[Fr., La clemence est la plus belle marque
Qui fasse a l'univers connaitre un vrai monqrque.]
Author: Pierre Corneille
Source: Cinna (IV, 4)
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Now let us sing, long live the king.
Author: William Cowper
Source: History of John Gilpin
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I am monarch of all I survey,
My right there is none to dispute,
From the centre all round to the sea,
I am lord of the fowl and the brute.
Author: William Cowper
Source: Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk
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I'd like to be a queen in people's hearts but I don't see myself
being Queen of this country.
Author: Diana, Princess of Wales
Source: in a BBC1 television interview
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And kind as kings upon their coronation day.
Author: John Dryden
Source: Fables--The Hind and the Panther (pt. I, l. 271)
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A man's a man,
But when you see a king, you see the work
Of many thousand men.
Author: George Eliot (pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans Cross)
Source: The Spanish Gypsy (bk. I)
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Every citizen is king under a citizen king.
[Fr., Tout citoyen est roi sous un roi citoyen.]
Author: Charles Simon Favart
Source: Les Trois Sultanes (II, 3)
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There was a king of Thule,
Was faithful till the grave,
To whom his mistress dying,
A golden goblet gave.
[Ger., Es war ein Konig in Tule
Gar treu bis an das Grab,
Dem sterbend seine Buhle
Einen gold'nen Becher gab.]
Author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Source: Faust--The King of Thule, (Bayard Taylor's translation)
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As ourselves your empires fall,
And every kingdom hath a grave.
Author: William Habington
Source: Night
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She governs but she does not reign.
[Fr., Elle gouvernait, mais elle ne regnait pas.]
Author: Charles Jean Henault
Source: Memoirs (161), said of Mem. des Ursins, favorite of Philip V of Spain
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The Royall Crowne cures not the head-ach.
[The Royal Crown cures not the headache.]
Author: George Herbert
Source: Jacula Prudentum
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The rule
Of the many is not well. One must be chief
In war and one the king.
Author: Homer ("Smyrns of Chios")
Source: The Iliad (bk. II, l. 253), (Bryant's translation)
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Whenever monarchs err, the people are punished.
[Lat., Quidquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi.]
Author: Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Source: Epistles (I, 2, 14)
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On the king's gate the moss grew gray;
The king came not. They call'd him dead;
And made his eldest son, one day,
Slave in his father's stead.
Author: Helen Hunt Jackson (Helen Hunt)
Source: Coronation
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God gives not kings the stile of Gods in vaine,
For on his throne his sceptre do they sway;
And as their subjects ought them to obey,
So kings should feare and serve their God againe.
Author: James I of England
Source: Sonnet Addressed to his son, Prince Henry
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Though good faith should be banished from the rest of the world,
it should be found in the mouths of kings.
[Fr., Si la bonne foi etait bannie du reste du monde, il faudrait
qu'on la trouvat dans la bouche des rois.]
Author: Jean II ("Le Bon")
Source: see "Biographie Universelle"
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The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary
commonwealth.
Author: Samuel Johnson
Source: Life of Milton
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Princes that would their people should do well
Must at themselves begin, as at the head;
For men, by their example, pattern out
Their limitations, and regard of laws:
A virtuous court a world to virtue draws.
Author: Ben Jonson
Source: Cynthia's Revels (act V, sc. 3)
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A prince without letters is a Pilot without eyes. All his
government is groping.
Author: Ben Jonson
Source: Discoveries--Illiteratus Princeps
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They say Princes learn no art truly, but the art of horsemanship.
The reason is, the brave beast is no flatterer. He will throw a
Prince as soon as his groom.
Author: Ben Jonson
Source: Discoveries--Illiteratus Princeps
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Over all good things certain, this is sure indeed,
Suffer not the old King, for we know the breed.
Author: Rudyard Kipling
Source: The Old Issue, in the "Five Nations"
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'Ave you 'eard o' the Widow at Windsor
With a hairy old crown on 'er 'ead?
She 'as ships on the foam--she 'as millions at 'ome,
An' she pays us poor beggars in red.
Author: Rudyard Kipling
Source: The Widow at Windsor
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The court is like a palace built of marble; I mean that it is
made up of very hard but very polished people.
[Fr., La cour est comme un edifice bati de marbre; je veux dire
qu'elle est composee d'hommes fort durs mais fort polis.]
Author: Jean de la Bruyere
Source: Les Caracteres (VIII)
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Ah! vainest of all things
Is the gratitude of kings.
Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Source: Belisarius (st. 8)
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He who knows not how to dissimulate, can not reign.
[Fr., Qui ne sait dissimuler, ne sait regner.]
Author: Louis XI
Source: see Roche et Chasles--"Hist. de France", vol. II, p. 30
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I am the State.
[Fr., L'etat c'est moi.]
Author: Louis XI
Source: see Roche et Chasles--"Hist. de France", vol. II, p. 30
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He who knows how to dissimulate knows how to reign.
[Fr., Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit regnare.]
Author: Vicentius Lupanus (Vincent de La Loupe)
Source: De Magistratibus & Praefecturis Francorum (lib. I)
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His fair large front and eye sublime declared
Absolute rule; and hyacinthine locks
Round from his parted forelock manly hung
Clustering but not beneath his shoulders broad.
Author: John Milton
Source: Paradise Lost (bk. IV, l. 300)
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'Tis so much to be a king, that he only is so by being so.
- Michael Eyquen de Montaigne,
Author: Michael Eyquen de Montaigne
Source: Essays--Of the Inconveniences of Greatness
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A crown! what is it?
It is to bear the miseries of a people!
To bear the miseries of a people!
And sink beneath a load of splendid care!
Author: Hannah More
Source: Daniel (pt. VI)
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St. George he was for England; St. Dennis was for France.
Sing, "Honi soit qui mal y pense."
Author: Old Song
Source: Black-letter Ballad, London, 1512
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