Quotes from book
Let them eat cake

Name: Let them eat cake
Author: Marie Antoinette

"Let them eat brioche" is the traditional translation of the French phrase "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche", supposedly spoken by "a great princess" upon learning that the peasants had no bread. Since brioche was a luxury bread enriched with butter and eggs, the quotation would reflect the princess's disregard for the peasants, or her poor understanding of their situation. This phrase has been commonly mistranslated as "Let them eat cake", although there is no mention in the phrase of cake, or in French, "gâteau".

“It is quite certain that in seeing the people who treat us so well despite their own misfortune, we are more obliged than ever to work hard for their happiness.”

Marie Antoinette book Let them eat cake

After learning of the bread shortages that were occurring in Paris at the time of Louis XVI's coronation in Rheims, as quoted in Marie Antoinette: The Journey (2001) by Antonia Fraser, p. 135 . Tradition persists that Marie Antoinette joked "Let them eat cake!" (Qu'ils mangent de la brioche.) This phrase, however, occurs in a passage of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions, written in 1766, when Marie Antoinette was 11 years old and four years before her marriage to Louis XVI. Cf. The Straight Dope http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_334.html, "On Language" http://partners.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20000625mag-onlanguage.html by William Safire at The New York Times, and in the discussions at Google groups http://groups.google.com/group/alt.talk.royalty/msg/6a7b76d15c411368?dmode=source. <br class="br">Context: It is quite certain that in seeing the people who treat us so well despite their own misfortune, we are more obliged than ever to work hard for their happiness. The king seems to understand this truth; as for myself, I know that in my whole life (even if I live for a hundred years) I shall never forget the day of the coronation.