kings quotes

  • You must not miss Whitehall. At one end you will find a statue of one of our kings who was beheaded; at the other, a monument tothemanwho did it.That isjust one example of our attempts to be fair to everybody.

    - Sir Edward Victor Appleton
      Speech, Stockholm,1  Jan.

  • As many were astonished at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: Soshall hesprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Isaiah 52:14^15.

  • Many kings have sat down upon the ground; and one that was never thought of hath worn the crown.

    -Bible (Apocrypha)
    Ecclesiasticus11:5.

  • Why do the heathen so furiously rage together, and why do the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed.

    -Book of Common Prayer
    Psalm 2:1^2.

  • Who swinging his axe to fell kings, guesses where we go?

    - Basil Bunting
      Briggflatts, coda.

  • Kings will be tyrants from policy when subjects are rebels from principle.

    - Edmund Burke
      Reflections on the Revolution in France.

  • From scenes like these, old S's grandeur springs, That makes her lov'd at home, rever'd abroad: Princes and lords are but the breath of kings, 'An honest man's the noble work of G'. See Pope 660:25.

    - Robert Burns
    COTIAOD1785  'The Cotter's Saturday Night', stanza19. The last line is in fact a misquotation of Pope;'noble' was corrected to'noblest' in the1794 edition of Burns's poems.

  • There was three kings into the east, Three kings both great and high, And they hae sworn a solemn oath John Barleycorn should die.

    - Robert Burns
      'John Barleycorn.  A Ballad', stanza1.

  • Kings may be blest but Tam was glorious, O'er a'the ills o' life victorious!

    - Robert Burns
      'Tam o' Shanter.  A  Tale'.

  • Whoso has sixpence is sovereign (to the length of sixpence) over all men; commands cooks to feed him, philosophers to teach him, kings to mount guard over him,to the length of sixpence.

    -Thomas Carlyle
    ^4  Sartor Resartus, bk.1, ch.5.

  •    Otium et reges prius et beatas perdidit urbes. Often has leisure ruined great kings and fine cities.

    -Catullus full name  Gaius Valerius Catullus
    Carmina, no.51.

  • But war's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings should not play at. Nations would do well To extort their truncheons from the puny hands Of heroes, whose infirm and baby minds Are gratified with mischief, and who spoil, Because men suffer it, their toy the world.

    -William Cowper
      The Task, bk.5,'The Winter Morning Walk', l.187^92.

  • All the four Monarchies, with all their thousands of years, and all the powerful Kings and all the beautiful Queens ofthis world, were but as a bed of flowers, some gathered at six, some at seven, some at eight, all in one morning, in respect to this day.

    -John Donne
      On eternity. Sermon, 30  Apr.

  • Plots, true or false, are necessary things, To raise up commonwealths and ruin kings.

    -John Dryden
      Alluding to the alleged Popish plot to murder the King, which brought about the Exclusion crisis.  Absalom and Achitophel, pt.1, l.83^4.

  • War is the trade of kings.

    -John Dryden
    King  Arthur, act 2, sc.2.

  • Porque alla   los espan‹  oles y las otras naciones†como tienen historias divinas y humanas, saben por ellas cua  ndo empezaron a reinar sus Reyes y los ajenos†todo esto y mucho ma  s saben por sus libros. Empero vosotros, que carece  is de ellos, Que   memoria tene  is de vuestras antiguallas?, Quie  n fue el primero de nuestros Incas? Over there Spaniards and other nations know from their divine and human history when their Kings and other peoples' Kings began their reigns† Their books teach them all of this, and much more. But you, who have no books, what memories do you have of your ancient past? Who was our first Inca?

    - Inca Garcilaso de laVega
      Comentarios reales (TheRoyal Commentaries of Peru,1688), bk.1, ch.15.

  • I am the very model of a modern Major-General, I've information vegetable, animal and mineral, I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical, From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical.

    - Sir W(illiam) S(chwenck) Gilbert
       The Major-General's song, The Pirates of Penzance, act1.

  • How small, of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!

    - Oliver Goldsmith
      The Traveller, l.429^30.

  • For Kings and Governments may err But never Mr Baedeker.

    - SirA(lan) P(atrick) Herbert
      'Mr Baedeker, or Britons  Abroad'.

  • TheWhite House†a palacemore comfortablethanthat of most kings.

    - Herbert Clark Hoover
      The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover, vol.2.

  • And they shall be accounted poet kings Who simply tell the most heart-easing things.

    -John Keats
      'Sleep and Poetry', l.267^8.

  • I saw pale kings, and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; Who cry'd'La belle Dame sans Merci Hath thee in thrall!'

    -John Keats
      'La Belle Dame Sans Merci', stanza10.

  • The tumult and the shouting dies The captains and the kings depart Still standsThine ancient Sacrifice, An humble and a contrite heart. Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forgetlest we forget! See Bible 95:31.

    - (Joseph) Rudyard Kipling
      'Recessional'.

  • If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kingsnor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it. Andwhich is moreyou'll be a Man, my son!

    - (Joseph) Rudyard Kipling
      Rewards and Fairies,'If'.

  • Kings and Desperate Men.

    - Louis Kronenberger
       Title of book on18c England.

  • The function of kings consists primarily of using good sense, which always comes naturally and easily.Our work is sometimes less difficult than our amusements.

    -Louis XIV knownas the Great or leRoiSoleil [theSunKing]
    Me  moires for the Instruction of the Dauphin.

  • L'exactitude est la politesse des rois. Punctuality is the politeness of kings.

    -Louis XVI
    Quoted in Souvenirs de J Lafitte (1844), bk.1, ch.3.

  • We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.

    -Stockton
      Speech, Strasbourg,16  Aug.

  • Might first made kings, and laws were then most sure When†they were writ in blood.

    - Christopher Marlowe
    c.1589  The Jew of Malta (published1633),'Prologue'.

  • The griefs of private men are soon allayed, But not of kings.

    - Christopher Marlowe
    c.1591 Edward II (published1594), act 5, sc.1.

  • But what are kings, when regiment isgone, But perfect shadows in a sunshine day?

    - Christopher Marlowe
    c.1591 Edward II (published1594), act 5, sc.1.

  •    And so sep u' lchered in such pomp dost lie, That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.

    -John Milton
      'On Shakespeare'.

  • The power of kings and magistrates is nothing else but what is only derivative; transformed and committed to them in trust from the people to the common good of them all, in whom the power yet remains fundamentally, and cannot be taken from them without a violation of their natural birthright.

    -John Milton
    ^9  The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates.

  • La grammaire qui sait re  genter jusqu'aux rois. Even kings must bow to grammar.

    -Jean Baptiste Poquelin Molie'  re
      Les femmes savantes, act 2, sc.6.

  • Let Erin remember the days of Old, Ere her faithless sons betrayed her; When Malachi wore the collar of gold Which he won from her proud invader; When her kings, with standards of green unfurled, Led the Red-Branch Knights to danger; Ere the emerald gem of the western world Was set in the crown of a stranger.

    -Thomas Moore
      Irish Melodies,'Let Erin Remember'.

  • Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the bowers of paradise.

    -Thomas Paine
      Common Sense, ch.1.

  • Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinelyand adequately philosophize, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide†cities will have no rest from evils, nor, I think, will the human race.

    -Plato
    Republic, bk.5,473c (translated by G M A Grube, revised by C D C Reeve).

  •    Awake, my St.John! leave all meaner things To low ambition, and the pride of kings. Let us (since Life can little more supply Than just to look about us and to die) Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man; A mighty maze! but not without a plan.

    - Alexander Pope
      An Essay on Man, epistle1, l.1^6.

  • Books and the Man I sing, the first who brings The Smithfield Muses to the Ear of Kings. Say great Patricians! (since your selves inspire These wond'rous works; so Jove and Fate require) Say from what cause, in vain decry'd and curst, Still Dunce the second reigns like Dunce the first?

    - Alexander Pope
      The Dunciad, bk.1, l.1^6.

  • Somemenare bornkings; and someare bornstatesmen. The two are seldom the same.

    - George Bernard Shaw
      Peter Cauchon. Saint  Joan, sc.4.

  • The glories of our blood and state Are shadows, not substantial things; There is no armour against fate; Death lays his icy hand on kings: Scepter and crown Must tumble down, And in the dust be equal made With the poor crooked scythe and spade.

    -James Shirley
      The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses, act1, sc.3.

  • In ease of body, peace of mind, all the different ranks of life are nearly upon a level and the beggar who suns himself by the side of the highway, possesses that security which kings are fighting for.

    - Adam Smith
      TheTheory of Moral Sentiments.

  • The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

    - Robert Louis Stevenson
      A Child's Garden ofVerses, no.24,'HappyThought'.

  •    All kings is mostly rapscallions.

    - Mark pseudonym of  Samuel Langhorne Clemens Twain
      TheAdventures of Huckleberry Finn, ch.22.

  • Physicians are like kings,they brook no contradiction.

    -John Webster
      The Duchess of Malfi, act 5, sc.2.

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2010 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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