Monarchy Quotes

What astonishing changes a few years are capable of producing! I am told that even respectable characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror.

I saw the crown of France laying on the ground, so I picked it up with my sword.

The people excited by ambitious demagogues, sooner or later return into the hands of the Aristocracy.

There is no man more pusillanimous than I when I am planning a campaign. I purposely exaggerate all the dangers and all the calamities that the circumstances make possible. I am in a thoroughly painful state of agitation. This does not keep me from looking quite serene in front of my entourage; I am like an unmarried girl laboring with child. Once I have made up my mind, everything is forgotten except what leads to success.

If I were to give liberty to the press, my power could not last three days.

I am the successor, not of Louis XVI, but of Charlemagne.

Europe is a molehill. It has never had any great empires, like those of the Orient, numbering six hundred million souls.

I am a monarch of God's creation, and you reptiles of the earth dare not oppose me. I render an account of my government to none save God and Jesus Christ.

I did not usurp the crown. I picked it up from the gutter; the people placed it on my head. I was king of the people as the Bourbons are kings of the nobles.

All authority is in the throne; and what is the throne? This wooden frame covered with velvet? No, I am the throne.

One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority.

Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.

A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.

Civilisation had been restored to the Island. But now the political fabric which nurtured it was about to be overthrown. Hitherto strong men armed had kept the house. Now a child, a weakling, a vacillator, a faithless, feckless creature, succeeded to the warrior throne.

Here is a law which is above the King and which even he must not break. This reaffirmation of a supreme law and its expression in a general charter is the great work of Magna Carta; and this alone justifies the respect in which men have held it.

In place of the King's arbitrary despotism they proposed, not the withering anarchy of feudal separatism, but a system of checks and balances which would accord the monarchy its necessary strength, but would prevent its perversion by a tyrant or a fool.

The monarchy is so extraordinarily useful. When Britain wins a battle she shouts, God save the Queen; when she loses, she votes down the prime minister.

The Tories in England had long imagined that they were enthusiastic about the monarchy, the church and beauties of the old English Constitution, until the day of danger wrung from them the confession that they are enthusiastic only about rent.

If a king is energetic, his subjects will be equally energetic.

The king shall singly deliberate over secret matters; for ministers have their own ministers, and these latter some of their own; this kind of successive line of ministers tends to the disclosure of counsels.