I would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married.
—Queen Elizabeth I
Topics: Marriage
I am your anointed Queen. I will never be by violence constrained to do anything. I thank God I am endued with such qualities that if I were turned out of the Realm in my petticoat I were able to live in any place in Christendom.
—Queen Elizabeth I
Topics: Kings, Queens, Royalty
Although I may not be a lioness, I am a lion’s cub, and inherit many of his qualities; and as long as the King of France treats me gently he will find me as gentle and tractable as he can desire; but if he be rough, I shall take the trouble to be just as troublesome and offensive to him as I can.
—Queen Elizabeth I
Topics: Kindness
Though God hath raised me high, yet this I count the glory of my crown: that I have reigned with your loves. And though you have had, and may have, many mightier and wiser princes sitting in this seat; yet you never had, nor shall have any that will love you better.
—Queen Elizabeth I
Topics: Queens, Royalty, Kings
All my possessions for a moment of time.
—Queen Elizabeth I
Topics: Value of a Day, Time Management
Must! Is must a word to be addressed to princes? Little man, little man! thy father, if he had been alive, durst not have used that word.
—Queen Elizabeth I
Topics: Necessity
Cowards falter, but danger is often overcome by those who nobly dare.
—Queen Elizabeth I
Topics: Cowardice, Coward
To be a king and wear a crown is more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasure to them that bear it.
—Queen Elizabeth I
Topics: Power
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Frederick II of Prussia Prussian Monarch
Enoch Powell British Politician
Akhenaten Egyptian Monarch
Dorothy L. Sayers English Novelist, Playwright
Charles Darwin British Naturalist
Samuel Johnson British Essayist
Rudyard Kipling British Children’s Books Writer
Alfred, Lord Tennyson British Poet