Quotes about prince
page 6

“There is nothing that adds more lustre to a prince than having efficient officers.”

Stefano Guazzo (1530–1593) Italian writer

De' Magistrati, p. 117.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 380.

George Bernard Shaw photo

“The greatest of God's names is Counsellor; and when your Empire is dust and your name a byword among the nations the temples of the living God shall still ring with his praise as Wonderful! Counsellor! the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Jesus, as portrayed in Preface, Difference Between Reader And Spectator
1930s, On the Rocks (1933)
Context: Law is blind without counsel. The counsel men agree with is vain: it is only the echo of their own voices. A million echoes will not help you to rule righteously. But he who does not fear you and shews you the other side is a pearl of the greatest price. Slay me and you go blind to your damnation. The greatest of God's names is Counsellor; and when your Empire is dust and your name a byword among the nations the temples of the living God shall still ring with his praise as Wonderful! Counsellor! the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

Hugh Latimer photo

“The poorest ploughman is in Christ equal with the greatest prince that is.”

Hugh Latimer (1485–1555) British bishop

Sermons (1844) Cambridge University Press
Context: The poorest ploughman is in Christ equal with the greatest prince that is. Let them therefore have sufficient to maintain them…

Niccolo Machiavelli photo

“Still, a prince should make himself feared in such a way that if he does not gain love, he at any rate avoids hatred; for fear and the absence of hatred may well go together, and will be always attained by one who abstains from interfering with the property of his citizens and subjects or with their women.”

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 17
Context: Still, a prince should make himself feared in such a way that if he does not gain love, he at any rate avoids hatred; for fear and the absence of hatred may well go together, and will be always attained by one who abstains from interfering with the property of his citizens and subjects or with their women. And when he is obliged to take the life of any one, to do so when there is a proper justification and manifest reason for it; but above all he must abstain from taking the property of others, for men forget more easily the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony. Then also pretexts for seizing property are never wanting, and one who begins to live by rapine will always find some reason for taking the goods of others, whereas causes for taking life are rarer and more quickly destroyed.

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“5698. Who draws his Sword against his Prince, must throw away the Scabbard.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

Joyce Kilmer photo

“In shining rank on rank arrayed
They march, the legions of the Lord;
He is their Captain unafraid,
The Prince of Peace . . . Who brought a sword.”

"Memorial Day"; this poem was later published in The Army and Navy Hymnal (1920)
Trees and Other Poems (1914)
Context: The bugle echoes shrill and sweet,
But not of war it sings to-day.
The road is rhythmic with the feet
⁠Of men-at-arms who come to pray. The roses blossom white and red
⁠On tombs where weary soldiers lie;
Flags wave above the honored dead
⁠And martial music cleaves the sky. Above their wreath-strewn graves we kneel,
⁠They kept the faith and fought the fight.
Through flying lead and crimson steel
⁠They plunged for Freedom and the Right. May we, their grateful children, learn
⁠Their strength, who lie beneath this sod,
Who went through fire and death to earn
⁠At last the accolade of God.In shining rank on rank arrayed
They march, the legions of the Lord;
He is their Captain unafraid,
The Prince of Peace... Who brought a sword.</p

“No man — prince, peasant, pope, — has all the light, who says else is a mountebank. I claim no private lien on truth, only a liberty to seek it, prove it in debate, and to be wrong a thousand times to reach a single rightness.”

Morris West (1916–1999) Australian writer

The Heretic (1968)
Context: No man — prince, peasant, pope, — has all the light, who says else is a mountebank. I claim no private lien on truth, only a liberty to seek it, prove it in debate, and to be wrong a thousand times to reach a single rightness. It is that liberty they fear. They want us to be driven to God like sheep, not running to him like lovers, shouting joy!

John Ogilby photo

“Mercy makes Princes Gods.”

John Ogilby (1600–1676) Scottish academic

Fab. IX: Of the Lyon and the Mouse, Moral
The Fables of Aesop (2nd ed. 1668)

G. K. Chesterton photo

“The highest point of democratic idealism and conviction was towards the end of the eighteenth century, when the American Republic was 'dedicated to the proposition that all men are equal.' It was then that the largest number of men had the most serious sort of conviction that the political problem could be solved by the vote of peoples instead of the arbitrary power of princes and privileged orders.”

"The Future of Democracy" http://www.online-literature.com/chesterton/what-i-saw-in-america/19/
What I Saw in America (1922)
Context: The last hundred years has seen a general decline in the democratic idea. If there be anybody left to whom this historical truth appears a paradox, it is only because during that period nobody has been taught history, least of all the history of ideas. If a sort of intellectual inquisition had been established, for the definition and differentiation of heresies, it would have been found that the original republican orthodoxy had suffered more and more from secessions, schisms, and backslidings. The highest point of democratic idealism and conviction was towards the end of the eighteenth century, when the American Republic was 'dedicated to the proposition that all men are equal.' It was then that the largest number of men had the most serious sort of conviction that the political problem could be solved by the vote of peoples instead of the arbitrary power of princes and privileged orders.

William Saroyan photo

“Somewhere among every man's ancestors is a prince or a lord, a priest or a saint, and don't forget it. Wake up!”

William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer

Jim Dandy : Fat Man in a Famine (1947)
Context: Somewhere among every man's ancestors is a prince or a lord, a priest or a saint, and don't forget it. Wake up! Inherit the wealth of your ancestors!.. Stop living like a mouse, live like the rich people do.

Bill Bailey photo

“Song for Prince Charles, performed with Robin Williams on We Are Most Amused”

Bill Bailey (1965) English comedian, musician, actor, TV and radio presenter and author

2008
Lyrics

Epictetus photo
Niccolo Machiavelli photo

“The prince must consider, as has been in part said before, how to avoid those things which will make him hated or contemptible; and as often as he shall have succeeded he will have fulfilled his part, and he need not fear any danger in other reproaches.”

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 19: 'That one should avoid being despised and hated'
Context: The prince must consider, as has been in part said before, how to avoid those things which will make him hated or contemptible; and as often as he shall have succeeded he will have fulfilled his part, and he need not fear any danger in other reproaches. It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects, from both of which he must abstain. And when neither their property nor honour is touched, the majority of men live content, and he has only to contend with the ambition of a few, whom he can curb with ease in many ways. It makes him contemptible to be considered fickle, frivolous, effeminate, mean-spirited, irresolute, from all of which a prince should guard himself as from a rock; and he should endeavour to show in his actions greatness, courage, gravity, and fortitude; and in his private dealings with his subjects let him show that his judgments are irrevocable, and maintain himself in such reputation that no one can hope either to deceive him or to get round him. That prince is highly esteemed who conveys this impression of himself, and he who is highly esteemed is not easily conspired against; for, provided it is well known that he is an excellent man and revered by his people, he can only be attacked with difficulty.

“But the princes, putting the words of their wise men to naught, thought each to himself: If I but strike quickly enough, and in secret, I shall destroy these others in their sleep, and there will be none to fight back; the earth shall be mine.
Such was the folly of princes, and there followed the Flame Deluge.”

Ch 6
A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959), Fiat Homo
Context: It was said that God, in order to test mankind which had become swelled with pride as in the time of Noah, had commanded the wise men of that age, among them the Blessed Leibowitz, to devise great engines of war such as had never before been upon the Earth, weapons of such might that they contained the very fires of Hell, and that God had suffered these magi to place the weapons in the hands of princes, and to say to each prince: "Only because the enemies have such a thing have we devised this for thee, in order that they may know that thou hast it also, and fear to strike. See to it, m'Lord, that thou fearest them as much as they shall now fear thee, that none may unleash this dread thing which we have wrought." But the princes, putting the words of their wise men to naught, thought each to himself: If I but strike quickly enough, and in secret, I shall destroy these others in their sleep, and there will be none to fight back; the earth shall be mine.
Such was the folly of princes, and there followed the Flame Deluge.

David Lipscomb photo

“Human government, the embodied effort of man to rule the world without God, ruled over by "the prince of this world," the devil.”

David Lipscomb (1831–1917) Leader, American Restoration Movement

Source: Civil Government : Its Origin, Mission, and Destiny (1889), p. 73
Context: Human government, the embodied effort of man to rule the world without God, ruled over by "the prince of this world," the devil. Its mission is to execute wrath and vengeance here on earth. Human government bears the same relation to hell as the church bears to heaven.

PZ Myers photo

“We are not princes of the earth, we are the descendants of worms, and any nobility must be earned.”

PZ Myers (1957) American scientist and associate professor of biology

Context: Look at the bible as a pastiche, a collection of mutually and often internally inconsistent fragments slapped together for crude reasons of politics and art and priestly self-promotion and sometimes beauty and a lot of chest-thumping tribalism, and through that lens, it makes a lot of sense. It does tell us something important…about us, not some fantastic mythological being. It tells us that we are fractious, arrogant, scrappy people who sometimes accomplish great things and more often cause grief and pain to one another. We want to be special in a universe that is uncaring and cold, and in which the nature of our existence is a transient flicker, so we invent these strange stories of grand beginnings, like every orphan dreaming that they are the children of kings who will one day ride up on a white horse and take them away to a beautiful palace and a rich and healthy family that will love them forever. We are not princes of the earth, we are the descendants of worms, and any nobility must be earned.

Julian (emperor) photo

“And lo, the hour is here
And summons you. Appear!
Ye may no more delay.
Come hear the herald's call
Ye princes one and all.”

Julian (emperor) (331–363) Roman Emperor, philosopher and writer

The Caesars (c. 361)
Context: The trial that begins
Awards to him who wins
The fairest prize to-day.
And lo, the hour is here
And summons you. Appear!
Ye may no more delay.
Come hear the herald's call
Ye princes one and all.
Many tribes of men
Submissive to you then!
How keen in war your swords!
But now 'tis wisdom's turn;
Now let your rivals learn
How keen can be your words.

Franklin D. Roosevelt photo

“It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States

1930s, Speech to the Democratic National Convention (1936)
Context: It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property. And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man.

Rumi photo

“A prince is just
a conceit until he does something with generosity.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

"The Far Mosque" in Ch. 17 : Solomon Poems, p. 191
The Essential Rumi (1995)
Context: This heart sanctuary does
exist, but it can't be described. Why try! Solomon goes there every morning and gives guidance
with words, with musical harmonies, and in actions,
which are the deepest teaching. A prince is just
a conceit until he does something with generosity.

Niccolo Machiavelli photo

“A prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force that it not only upholds those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from a private station to that rank.”

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 14; Variant: A prince should therefore have no other aim or thought, nor take up any other thing for his study but war and it organization and discipline, for that is the only art that is necessary to one who commands.
Context: A prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force that it not only upholds those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from a private station to that rank. And, on the contrary, it is seen that when princes have thought more of ease than of arms they have lost their states. And the first cause of your losing it is to neglect this art; and what enables you to acquire a state is to be master of the art.

Algernon Sidney photo

“Let the danger be never so great, there is a possibility of safety, whilst men have life, hands, arms, and courage to use them; but that people must certainly perish, who tamely suffer themselves to be oppressed, either by the injustice, cruelty, and malice of an ill magistrate, or by those who prevail upon the vices and infirmities of weak princes.”

Algernon Sidney (1623–1683) British politician and political theorist

Source: Discourses Concerning Government (1689), Ch. 3, Sect. 3.
Context: If these rules have not been well observed in the first constitution, or from the changes of times, corruption of manners, insensible encroachments, or violent usurpations of princes, have been rendered ineffectual, and the people exposed to all the calamities that may be brought upon them by the weakness, vices, and malice of the prince, or those who govern him, I confess the remedies are more difficult and dangerous; but even in those cases they must be tried. Nothing can be feared that is worse than what is suffered, or must in a short time fall upon those who are in this condition. They who are already fallen into all that is odious, shameful, and miserable, cannot justly fear. When things are brought to such a pass, the boldest counsels are the most safe; and if they must perish who lie still, and they can but perish who are most active, the choice is easily made. Let the danger be never so great, there is a possibility of safety, whilst men have life, hands, arms, and courage to use them; but that people must certainly perish, who tamely suffer themselves to be oppressed, either by the injustice, cruelty, and malice of an ill magistrate, or by those who prevail upon the vices and infirmities of weak princes. It is in vain to say, that this may give occasion to men of raising tumults, or civil war; for tho' these are evils, yet they are not the greatest of evils. Civil war, in Macchiavel's account, is a disease; but tyranny is the death of a state. Gentle ways are first to be used, and it is best if the work can be done by them; but it must not be left undone, if they fail. It is good to use supplications, advices, and remonstrances; but those who have no regard to justice, and will not hearken to counsel, must be constrained. It is folly to deal otherwise with a man who will not be guided by reason, and a magistrate who despises the law; or rather, to think him a man, who rejects the essential principle of a man; or to account him a magistrate, who overthrows the law by which he is a magistrate. This is the last result; but those nations must come to it, which cannot otherwise be preserved.

Franklin D. Roosevelt photo

“If civilization is to survive, the principles of the Prince of Peace must be restored. Shattered trust between nations must be revived. Most important of all, the will for peace on the part of peace-loving nations must express itself to the end that nations that may be tempted to violate their agreements and the rights of others will desist from such a cause. There must be positive endeavors to preserve peace.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States

1930s, Quarantine Speech (1937)
Context: If civilization is to survive, the principles of the Prince of Peace must be restored. Shattered trust between nations must be revived. Most important of all, the will for peace on the part of peace-loving nations must express itself to the end that nations that may be tempted to violate their agreements and the rights of others will desist from such a cause. There must be positive endeavors to preserve peace. America hates war. America hopes for peace. Therefore, America actively engages in the search for peace.

Henry George photo

“A man of special learning may be a fool as to common relations. And that he who passes for an intellectual prince may be a moral pauper there are examples enough to show.”

Henry George (1839–1897) American economist

Introduction : The Reason for the Examination
A Perplexed Philosopher (1892)
Context: The respect for authority, the presumption in favor of those who have won intellectual reputation, is within reasonable limits, both prudent and becoming. But it should not be carried too far, and there are some things especially as to which it behooves us all to use our own judgment and to maintain free minds. For not only does the history of the world show that undue deference to authority has been the potent agency through which errors have been enthroned and superstitions perpetuated, but there are regions of thought in which the largest powers and the greatest acquirements cannot guard against aberrations or assure deeper insight. One may stand on a box and look over the heads of his fellows, but he no better sees the stars. The telescope and the microscope reveal depths which to the unassisted vision are closed. Yet not merely do they bring us no nearer to the cause of suns and animal-cula, but in looking through them the observer must shut his eyes to what lies about him. That intension is at the expense of extension is seen in the mental as in the physical sphere. A man of special learning may be a fool as to common relations. And that he who passes for an intellectual prince may be a moral pauper there are examples enough to show.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo

“A princelier-looking man never stept thro' a prince's hall.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate

The Wreck, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Joel Barlow photo

“Amid superior ranks of splendid slaves,
Lords, Dukes and Princes, titulary knaves,
Confus'dly shine their crosses, gems and stars,
Sceptres and globes and crowns and spoils of wars.”

Joel Barlow (1754–1812) American diplomat

The Conspiracy of Kings (1792)
Context: See the long pomp in gorgeous glare display'd,
The tinsel'd guards, the squadron'd horse parade;
See heralds gay, with emblems on their vest,
In tissu'd robes, tall, beauteous pages drest;
Amid superior ranks of splendid slaves,
Lords, Dukes and Princes, titulary knaves,
Confus'dly shine their crosses, gems and stars,
Sceptres and globes and crowns and spoils of wars.

Devdutt Pattanaik photo
Iltutmish photo
Edward Gibbon photo
Helena Roerich photo
Eliphas Levi photo
Alessandro Cagliostro photo

“I cannot speak. Some things must not be told to princes... My wizard is worn out... Nothing is to follow but the gold turning into dry leaves, as in the Arabian tale.”

Alessandro Cagliostro (1743–1795) Italian occultist

Balsamo the Magician (or The Memoirs of a Physician) by Alex. Dumas (1891)

Jean-Paul Marat photo
Jean-Paul Marat photo
Aurangzeb photo
Claude Louis Hector de Villars photo

“Do you want to know where Prince Eugene’s real enemies are? They are in Vienna, while mine are in Versailles.”

Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) Marshal General of France

Also quoted by Voltaire ("Voulez-vous que je vous dise où sont les vrais ennemis du Prince Eugene? Ils sont à Vienne, et les miens à Versailles.")
Source: https://www.bartleby.com/344/391.html

Mahmud of Ghazni photo

“The linga he raised was the stone of Somnath, for soma means the moon and natha means master, so that the whole word means master of the moon. The image was destroyed by the Prince Mahmud, may God be merciful to him!”

Mahmud of Ghazni (971–1030) Sultan of Ghazni

AH 416. He ordered the upper part to be broken and the remainder to be transported to his residence, Ghaznin, with all its coverings and trappings of gold, jewels, and embroidered garments. Part of it has been thrown into the hippodrome of the town, together with the Cakrasvamin, an idol of bronze, that had been brought from Taneshar. Another part of the idol from Somanath lies before the door of the mosque of Ghaznin, on which people rub their feet to clean them from dirt and wet.
E.C. Sachau (tr.), Alberuni's India, New Delhi Reprint, 1983, p. 102-103
Sack of Somnath (1025 CE)

Richard Adams photo
Michael Moorcock photo

“Did you not tell me once that patronage of the artist was the only valuable vocation to which a prince might aspire?”

Michael Moorcock (1939) English writer, editor, critic

Book 2 “Esbern Snare: The Northern Werewolf,” Chapter 1 “Consequences of Ill-Considered Dealings With the Supernatural” (p. 218)
The Elric Cycle, The Revenge of the Rose (1991)

Michael Moorcock photo

“Men may trust men, Prince Elric, but perhaps we’ll never have a truly sane world until men learn to trust mankind. That would mean the death of magic, I think.”

Michael Moorcock (1939) English writer, editor, critic

Book 3, Chapter 7 “The Irony of It” (p. 413)
The Elric Cycle, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976)

Alfred von Waldersee photo
Alfred von Waldersee photo

“Prince Wilhelm seems to have a good deal of his grandfather about him. If his parents have aimed at training him to be a constitutional monarch ready to bow to the rule of a parliamentary majority they have failed.”

Alfred von Waldersee (1832–1904) Prussian Field Marshal

Waldersee in his diary, 6 December 1883, quoted in Walter R. Pierce, Herr und Heer: The German Social Democrats and the Officer Corps, A Reappraisal

Alfred von Waldersee photo

“Prince William is very keen on the idea of war and regrets that things seem now to look more pacific.”

Alfred von Waldersee (1832–1904) Prussian Field Marshal

Waldersee in his diary, 15 February 1887

Dharma Raja photo

“Some time previous to the death of this Rajah, a female member of the Kolathnaud family was adopted as a Princess of Travancore, and Her Highness gave birth to a Prince in the Kollum year 899. This was the renowned Rama Rajah, generally called Dharma Rajah.”

Dharma Raja (1724–1798) Maharaja of Travancore

A History of Travancore from the Earliest Times" by P.S. Menon. 1878. https://archive.org/stream/ahistorytravanc00menogoog/ahistorytravanc00menogoog_djvu.txt

Lucy Maud Montgomery photo
Frederick II of Prussia photo
Niccolo Machiavelli photo

“Therefore a wise prince ought to adopt such a course that his citizens will always in every sort and kind of circumstance have need of the state and of him, and then he will always find them faithful.”

Original: (it) E però un principe savio deve pensare un modo per il quale i suoi cittadini sempre ed in ogni modo e qualità di tempo abbiano bisogno dello Stato di lui, e sempre poi gli saranno fedeli.
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 9; translated by W. K. Marriot

Ahmad Sirhindi photo
Norodom Ranariddh photo

“He got what he deserved, He led the party to one defeat after another. He led in an autocratic way and indulged in corruption. He is a prince without principles.”

Norodom Ranariddh (1944) Cambodian politician

by Sam Rainsy, President of Sam Rainsy Party in November 2006.
[Vong Sokheng and Charles McDermid, http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/funcinpec-prince-hails-royalist-cpp, Funcinpec prince hails 'Royalist' CPP, 3 November 2006, 28 August 2015, Phnom Penh Post]

Norodom Ranariddh photo

“Everyone knows that the only person in Funcinpec with the influence and popularity to work against the CPP is Prince Ranariddh. In Khmer society, only the monarchy can stand up to the CPP but it needs a nationalist movement behind it.”

Norodom Ranariddh (1944) Cambodian politician

by Sisowath Thomico, President of the Sangkum Jatiniyum Front Party in November 2006
[Vong Sokheng and Charles McDermid, http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/funcinpec-prince-hails-royalist-cpp, Funcinpec prince hails 'Royalist' CPP, 3 November 2006, 28 August 2015, Phnom Penh Post]

Norodom Ranariddh photo
Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma photo

“You are the elayaraja (crown prince) of Travancore?”

Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma (1922–2013) Maharaja of Travancore

She then recollected our first meeting years back in England. I was amazed when she asked if Travancore was in the southern tip of India?
After exchanging pleasantries with the Queen, quoted in "When 'Maharaja of Travancore' met Queen Elizabeth II (8 July 2012)".

Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar photo
Gopal Krishna Gokhale photo

“This diamond of India, this jewel of Maharashtra, this prince of workers is taking eternal rest on funeral ground. Look at him and try to emulate him.”

Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866–1915) social and political leader during the Indian Independence Movement

B.G.Tilak in "Guru and Chela".

Rufus Wainwright photo

“Rufus is extraordinary, so musically gifted in many diverse fields. He is a prince in shining armour, a true star in these days of dull and boring, pissy little pop stars.”

Rufus Wainwright (1973) American-Canadian singer-songwriter and composer

Gavin Friday, [July 16, 2012, http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/everybody-loves-rufus-3168433.html, everybody loves rufus]

Al-Biruni photo

“The linga he raised was the stone of Somnath, for soma means the moon and natha means master, so that the whole word means master of the moon. The image was destroyed by the Prince Mahmud, may God be merciful to him!”

AH 416. He ordered the upper part to be broken and the remainder to be transported to his residence, Ghaznin, with all its coverings and trappings of gold, jewels, and embroidered garments. Part of it has been thrown into the hippodrome of the town, together with the Cakrasvamin, an idol of bronze, that had been brought from Taneshar. Another part of the idol from Somanath lies before the door of the mosque of Ghaznin, on which people rub their feet to clean them from dirt and wet.
Source: E.C. Sachau (tr.), Alberuni's India, New Delhi Reprint, 1983

Peter Beckford photo
Ignatius Sancho photo

“Were I as rich in worldly commodity, as in hearty will, I would thank you most princely for your very welcome and agreeable letter;- but, were it so, I should not proportion my gratitude to your wants;- for, blessed be the God of thy hope!”

Ignatius Sancho (1729–1780) British composer, writer and grocer

thou wantest nothing- more than, what's in thy possession, or in thy power to possess:- I would neither give thee Money, nor Territory, Women, nor Horses, nor Camels, nor the height of Asiatic pride, Elephants;- I would give thee Books
(from vol 2, letter 60: 5 Jan 1780, to Mr J. W___e [still in India] ).

Arthur C. Clarke photo
Imru' al-Qais photo
Otto von Bismarck photo

“I ask you what right had I to close the way to the throne against these people? The kings of Prussia have never been by preference kings of the rich. Frederick the Great said when Crown Prince: “Quand je serai rot, je serai tin vrai rot des gueux.””

Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) German statesman, Chancellor of Germany

He undertook to be the protector of the poor, and this principle has been followed by our later kings. At their throne suffering has always found a refuge and a hearing. ... Our kings have secured the emancipation of the serfs, they have created a thriving peasantry, and they may possibly be successful—the earnest endeavour exists, at any rate—in improving the condition of the working classes somewhat. To have refused access to the throne to the complaints of these operatives would not have been the right course to pursue, and it was, moreover, not my business to do it. The question would afterwards have been asked: “How rich must a deputation be in order to its reception by the King?”

Speech to the Prussian United Diet in answer to the petition of Wüstegiersdorf weavers (1865), quoted in W. H. Dawson, Bismarck and State Socialism: An Exposition of the Social and Economic Legislation of Germany since 1870 (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1891), p. 31
1860s

Niccolo Machiavelli photo
Robert Filmer photo
Robert Filmer photo
Francis Bacon photo

“The difficulties in princes' business are many and great; but the greatest difficulty, is often in their own mind.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1857), Of Empire

Aurangzeb photo

“The temple of Chintaman, situated close to Sarash-pur, and built by Sitadas jeweller, was converted into a mosque named Quu)at~ul-islam by order of the Prince Aurangzib, in 1645.”

Aurangzeb (1618–1707) Sixth Mughal Emperor

(Mirat-i-Ahmadi, 232.) The Bombay Gazetteer, vol. I. pt, I. p. 280, adds that he slaughtered a cow in the temple, but Shah Jahan ordered the building to be restored to the Hindus.
Quotes from late medieval histories, 1660s
Source: Sarkar, Jadunath (1972). History of Aurangzib: Volume III. App. V.

James K. Morrow photo

“Much as I hate to admit it, humanity will get along perfectly well without me. Any species that could invent the twentieth century entirely on its own doesn’t need a Prince of Darkness.”

James K. Morrow (1947) (1947-) science fiction author

Source: Blameless in Abaddon (1996), Chapter 15 (p. 402; spoken by the Devil)

James K. Morrow photo
Joyce Kilmer photo
Harry Gordon Selfridge photo
Elizabeth I of England photo

“Those who touch the sceptres of princes deserve no pity.”

Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603) Queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until 1603

Remarks to the French ambassador on Charles de Gontaut, duc de Biron's rebellion against Henry IV of France (c. July 1602), quoted in J. E. Neale, Queen Elizabeth [1934] (1942), p. 364

Niccolo Machiavelli photo
Niccolo Machiavelli photo
Niccolo Machiavelli photo
Leopold II of Belgium photo
Charles Wesley photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Pierre Emmanuel Félix Chazal photo

“A Prince must not speak the language of the tribunes and proclaim absolute principles in terms which are likely to deeply offend those who are of another opinion than his own.”

Pierre Emmanuel Félix Chazal (1808–1892) Belgian politician (1808-1892)

Source: All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), 5. A prospectus by the military Chazal and Brialmont, The Importance of General Chazal in Colonial Politics. http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#2.%20 KMLKG, Papiers Chazal, 65/1, Chazal aan de hertog van Brabant, 28 juni 1859.

Leopold II of Belgium photo

“A Prince must not speak the language of the tribunes and proclaim absolute principles in terms which are likely to deeply offend those who are of another opinion than his own.”

Leopold II of Belgium (1835–1909) King of the Belgians

Source: All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), 5. A prospectus by the military Chazal and Brialmont, The Importance of General Chazal in Colonial Politics. http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#2.%20 KMLKG, Papiers Chazal, 65/1, Chazal aan de hertog van Brabant, 28 juni 1859.

Louis Philippe I photo

“I will never allow a Prince, who should only be there to hold the stirrup for Bonaparte's family, to become King of a neighboring realm.”

Louis Philippe I (1773–1850) King of the French

Source: Belgium since the Revolution of 1830, Page 226. https://be1830.be/onewebmedia/Belgi%C3%AB_sedert_de_omwenteling_in_1830%20I.pdf The French King Rejects 'Duke August van Leuchtenberg' as possible canidate for the Belgian throne.

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor photo
Polycarp photo
Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai photo
Geoffrey Chaucer photo