“A born king is a very rare being.”

The Nuts of Knowledge (1903)

Quoted in " How Did I Do That? http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/06/specials/pritchett-complete.html" by Deborah Stead, in The New York Times (24 March 1991)

Source: As quoted in 2005, "Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej: One of the world’s longest-reigning monarchs" in CNN https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/13/asia/thai-king-bhumibol-adulyadej-obituary/index.html (14 October 2016)

"Sword" ("Ken"), quoted in 三島由紀夫短編集: Seven Stories, translated by John Bester (2002), p. 67.

Book I, ch. 5
Le Morte d'Arthur (c. 1469) (first known edition 1485)

"For Fruits Basket", Siki
Lyrics

Les hommes sont fort à plaindre d'avoir à être gouvernés par un roi, qui n'est qu'homme semblable à eux; car il faudroit des dieux pour redresser les hommes. Mais les rois ne sont pas moins à plaindre, n'étant qu'hommes, c'est-à-dire foibles et imparfaits, d'avoir à gouverner cette multitude innombrable d'hommes corrompus et trompeurs.
Bk. 10, p. 72; translation p. 174.
Les aventures de Télémaque (1699)

Motto of the work written by Hesse, and attributed to an "Albertus Secundus"
The Glass Bead Game (1943)
Context: For although in a certain sense and for light-minded persons non-existent things can be more easily and irresponsibly represented in words than existing things, for the serious and conscientious historian it is just the reverse. Nothing is harder, yet nothing is more necessary, than to speak of certain things whose existence is neither demonstrable nor probable. The very fact that serious and conscientious men treat them as existing things brings them a step closer to existence and to the possibility of being born.

Canto XXI. St. 7.
Fridthjof's Saga (1820-1825)