quotations about kings
Kingcraft is a profession which has produced both the most illustrious and the most contemptible of the human race.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
attributed, Day's Collacon
God bless the King--I mean the faith's defender;
God bless (no harm in blessing) the pretender;
But who the pretender is, or who is King--
God bless us all--that's quite another thing.
JOHN BYRON
Miscellaneous Pieces
Why do the Gods make kings and queens if not to protect the ones who can't protect themselves?
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN
A Storm of Swords
The king's name is a tower of strength,
Which they upon the adverse party want.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Richard III
That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution.
WILLIAM BLACKSTONE
Book III
Kings are right to fear the blotting out of the sun. If you stake your political legitimacy on divine right--on the idea that your dominion was written, by god, into the very laws of nature--you have a big problem when the natural order begins to unwind, right before your subjects' eyes, in the most dramatic way possible.
ROSS ANDERSEN
"The Eclipse as Dark Omen", The Atlantic, August 10, 2017
An ordinary idle king on a constitutional throne will leave no mark on his time: he will do little good and as little harm.
WALTER BAGEHOT
The English Constitution
Most of the mess that is called history comes about because kings and presidents cannot be satisfied with a nice chicken and a good loaf of bread.
JENNIFER DONNELLY
Revolution
Once a king ... it was impossible, without risk of life, to sink to a private station.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY
The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck
A king is a king, not because he is rich and powerful, not because he is a successful politician, not because he belongs to a particular creed or to a national group. He is King because he is born. And in choosing to leave the selection of their head of state to this most common denominator in the world -- the accident of birth -- Canadians implicitly proclaim their faith in human equality; their hope for the triumph of nature over political manoeuvre, over social and financial interest; for the victory of the human person.
JACQUES MONET
"The Canadian Monarchy", The West and the Nation: Essays in Honour of W. L. Morton
For one to grasp, whatever be his object, sov'reign power ... is an act of perilous presumption.
VITTORIO ALFIERI
Timoleon
The people are fashioned according to the example of their king; and edicts are of less power than the model which his life exhibits.
CLAUDIAN
attributed, Day's Collacon
I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.
ELIZABETH I
The Public Speaking of Queen Elizabeth: Selections from Her Official Addresses
The insuperable objection to monarchy is that the king or queen is elevated, and respect is accorded, for no reason other than birth ... No one who believes either in the claims of merit or in the pursuit of equality can defend the system.
MERVYN JONES
attributed, New Statesman, August 2000
If I were a king, the mischief would be much greater; for I should ruin not only myself, but my subjects.
ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD
Tales, Poems and Essays
A substitute shines brightly as a king
Until a king be by, and then his state
Empties itself, as doth an inland brook
Into the main waters.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The Merchant of Venice
Courtiers don't take wagers against the king's skill. There is the deadly danger of winning.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation
The King did what all wise husbands do. He did as he was told.
TOBY FORWARD
Fireborn
When kings the sword of justice first lay down,
They are no kings, though they possess the crown.
Titles are shadows, crowns are empty things,
The good of subjects is the end of kings.
DANIEL DEFOE
The True-Born Englishman
Kings are never without flatterers to seduce them, ambition to deprive them, and desires to corrupt them.
PLATO
attributed, Day's Collacon