KING QUOTES II
quotations about kings
Every citizen is king under a citizen king.
FAVART
Les Trois Sultanes
I was much an enemy to monarchies before I came to Europe. I am ten thousand times more so, since I have seen what they are. There is scarcely an evil known in these countries, which may not be traced to their king, as its source, nor a good, which is not derived from the small fibres of republicanism existing among them.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to General Washington, May 2, 1788
No race of kings has ever presented above one man of common sense in twenty generations.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to Benjamin Hawkins, Aug. 4, 1787
Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils -- no, nor the human race, as I believe -- and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day.
PLATO
The Republic
My Crown is in my heart, not on my head:
Not deck'd with Diamonds, and Indian stones:
Nor to be seen: my Crown is call'd Content,
A Crown it is, that seldom Kings enjoy.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Henry VI, Part III
An unlearned king is but a crowned ass.
HENRY I
attributed, Day's Collacon
With ravished ears
The monarch hears;
Assumes the god,
Affects the nod,
And seems to shake the spheres.
JOHN DRYDEN, Alexander's Feast
Probably in most cases the greatest wisdom of a constitutional king would show itself in well-considered inaction.
WALTER BAGEHOT
The English Constitution
Whenever kingship approaches tyranny it is near its end, for by this it becomes ripe for division, change of dynasty, or total destruction, especially in a temperate climate ... where men are habitually, morally and naturally free.
NICOLE ORESME
"That a Tyrant cannot be lasting", The De Moneta of Nicholas Oresme
Ah! vainest of all things
Is the gratitude of kings.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Belisarius
For surely a king is first a man. And so it must follow that a king does as all men do: the best he can.
CAMERON DOKEY
The Storyteller's Daughter
A FAMILY on the throne is an interesting idea also. It brings down the pride of sovereignty to the level of petty life.
WALTER BAGEHOT
The English Constitution
A king is a mortal god on earth, unto whom the living God hath lent his own name as a great honour; but withal told him, he should die like a man, lest he should be proud, and flatter himself that God hath with his name imparted unto him his nature also.
JOHN LOCKE
"Of a King", The Conduct of the Understanding: Essays
Kings are (nay were before they were Kings, since it was this qualification determined their subjects to make them Kings) as strong as so many Hercules's; but then, as to their wisdom, or their goodness, there is not much to say.
JEREMY BENTHAM
A Fragment on Government
Kings ought never to be seen upon the stage. In the abstract, they are very disagreeable characters: it is only while living that they are 'the best of kings'. It is their power, their splendour, it is the apprehension of the personal consequences of their favour or their hatred that dazzles the imagination and suspends the judgement of their favourites or their vassals; but death cancels the bond of allegiance and of interest; and seen AS THEY WERE, their power and their pretensions look monstrous and ridiculous.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Characters of Shakespeare's Plays
Nations will go to your light
And kings to your shining splendor.
BIBLE
Isaiah 60:3
The state of Monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth; for kings are not only God's lieutenants upon earth and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself they are called gods.
JAMES I OF ENGLAND
speech to Parliament at Whitehall, March 21, 1609
All kings are foes of all the men they rule.
HORTENSE FLEXNER
Voices
If the king is pious, the subjects become so; but if the king is vicious, the subjects become the same. If he be indifferent to both (virtue and vice), then they too bear the same character. In short, as is the king so are his subjects.
CHANAKYA
Vridda-Chanakya
The greatest slave in a kingdom is generally the king of it.
FULKE GREVILLE
Maxims