“On the throne of the world, any delusion becomes fact.”

Pearls of Wisdom

Speech to the House of Commons (8 June 1982) http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1982/60882a.htm
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
Context: From Stettin on the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea, the regimes planted by totalitarianism have had more than thirty years to establish their legitimacy. But none — not one regime — has yet been able to risk free elections. Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.... If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly.... Our military strength is a prerequisite to peace, but let it be clear we maintain this strength in the hope it will never be used, for the ultimate determinant in the struggle that's now going on in the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas, a trial of spiritual resolve, the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish, the ideals to which we are dedicated.

Quoted by George W. Stimpson in A Book About American Politics http://books.google.com/books?id=5eQ5AAAAMAAJ&q=%22One+of+the+greatest+delusions+in+the+world+is+the+hope+that+the+evils+of+the+world+can+be+cured+by+legislation%22&pg=PA342#v=onepage (1952)

Address at the Al-Murabit Mosque in Damascus (2006)

...estás en tu casa, donde eres señor della, como el rey de sus alcabalas.
Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Prologue

Source: Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking (2013), p. 69

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 283.

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.

Source: Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna (1960), p. 955