Quotes
Quotes about Kings
And kind as kings upon their coronation day.
God gives not kings the stile of Gods in vaine, For on his throne his sceptre do they sway; And as their subjects ought them to obey, So kings should feare and serve their God againe.
Though good faith should be banished from the rest of the world, it should be found in the mouths of kings. [Fr., Si la bonne foi etait bannie du reste du monde, il faudrait qu'on la trouvat dans la bouche des rois.]
Ah! vainest of all things Is the gratitude of kings.
Knowest thou not that kings have long hands? [Lat., An nescis longos regibus esse manus?]
To know how to dissemble is the knowledge of kings. [Fr., Savoir dissimuler est le savoir des rois.]
When kings are building, draymen have something to do. [Ger., Wenn die Konige bau'n, haben die Karrner zu thun.]
At length her grace rose and with modest paces Came to the altar, where she kneeled, and saint-like Cast her fair eyes to heaven and prayed devoutly; Then rose again and bowed her to the people; When by the Archbishop of Canterbury She had all the royal makings of a queen, As holy oil, Edward Confessor's crown, The rod, and bird of peace, and all such emblems Laid nobly on her; which performed, the choir With all the choicest music of the kingdom Together sung 'Te Deum.' So she parted And with the same full state packed back again To York Place, where the feast is held.
For God's sake let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings! How some have been deposed, some slain in war, Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed, Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed-- All murdered; for within the hollow crown That rounds the mortal temples of a king Keeps Death his court; and there the antic sits, Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp; Allowing him a breath, a little scene, To monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks; Infusing him with self and vain conceit, As if this flesh which walls about our life Were brass impregnable; and humored thus, Comes at the last, and with a little pin Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king! Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood With solemn reverence, Throw away respect, Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty; For you have but mistook me all this while. I live with bread like you, feel want, taste grief, Need friends. Subjected thus,
Kings are like stars--they rise and set, they have The worship of the world, but no repose.
Kings are earth's gods; in vice their law's their will.
For, to make deserts, God, who rules mankind, Begins with kings, and ends the work by wind.
And Master Kingston, this I will say--had I but served God as diligently as I have served the king, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs.
The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. 'T is mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway, It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's, When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, Though justice be thy plea, consider this, That in the course of justice none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy; And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy. -The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.
No, 'tis slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath Rides on the posting winds and doth belie All corners of the world. Kings, queens. and states, Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave This viperous slander enters.
Custom, that unwritten law, By which the people keep even kings in awe.
A thousand leagues of ocean, a company of kings, You came across the watching world to show how heroes die. When the splendour of your story Builds the halo of its glory, 'Twill belt the earth like Saturn's rings And diadem the sky.
A murderer and a villain, A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe Of your precedent lord, a vice of kings, A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, That from a shelf the precious diadem stole And put it in his pocket--
The kings of modern thought are dumb.
This principle is old, but true as fate, Kings may love treason, but the traitor hate.
'Twixt kings and tyrans there's this difference known: Kings seek their subjects' good, tyrants their owne.
Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious, O'er a' the ills o' life victorious.
Neither ridiculous shriekings for revenge by French chauvinists, nor the Englishmen's gnashing of teeth, nor the wild gestures of the Slavs will turn us from our aim of protecting and extending German influence all the world over.
Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud. I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace.
Since all the riches of this world May be gifts from the devil and earthly kings, I should suspect that I worshipped the devil If I thanked my God for worldly things.
