As quoted in The Americans (1970) by David Frost, p. 181.
“On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.”
Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman
Book III, Ch. 13
Essais (1595), Book III
Source: The Complete Essays
Context: No matter that we may mount on stilts, we still must walk on our own legs. And on the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.
“You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Quoted in Herbert V. Prochnow (1955), Speaker's Book of Epigrams and Witticisms
Misattributed
“You can build a throne with bayonets, but it's difficult to sit on it.”
Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007) 1st President of Russia and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR
Televised speech (4 October 1993), as quoted in A Democracy of Despots (1995) by Donald Murray. p. 8
Variant translations: You can make a throne of bayonets, but you can't sit on it for long.
You can build a throne with bayonets, but you can't sit on it for long.
1990s
“You are a king by your own fireside, as much as any monarch in his throne.”
Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright
...estás en tu casa, donde eres señor della, como el rey de sus alcabalas.
Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Prologue
Richard Hamming (1915–1998) American mathematician and information theorist
The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1991)
“To arm a hand more powerful than your own
Is an ill method to maintain the throne.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Non è la via di dominar, se vuoi
Por l'arme in mano a chi può più di noi.
Canto XX, stanza 52 (tr. W. S. Rose)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
Aaron Copland (1900–1990) American composer, composition teacher, writer, and conductor
Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ISBN 0028645812.
