Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The past cannot be cured.
God forgive you, but I never can.
If we still advise we shall never do.
All my possessions for a moment of time.
If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.
The word must is not to be used to princes.
A clear and innocent conscience fears nothing.
He who placed me in this seat will keep me here.
Those who appear the most sanctified are the worst.
A fool too late bewares when all the peril is past.
The stone often recoils on the head of the thrower.
One man with a head on his shoulders is worth a dozen without.
I would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married.
Brass shines as fair to the ignorant as gold to the goldsmiths.
A strength to harm is perilous in the hand of an ambitious head.
I do not choose that my grave should be dug while I am still alive.
I have the heart of a man, not a woman, and I am not afraid of anything.
Where might is mixed with wit, there is too good an accord in a government.
Ye may have a greater prince, but ye shall never have a more loving prince.
Where minds differ and opinions swerve there is scant a friend in that company.
Do not tell secrets to those whose faith and silence you have not already tested.
It is a natural virtue incident to our sex to be pitiful of those that are afflicted.
I pray to God that I shall not live one hour after I have thought of using deception.
I do not want a husband who honours me as a queen, if he does not love me as a woman.
I do not so much rejoice that God hath made me to be a Queen, as to be a Queen over so thankful a people.
I shall lend credit to nothing against my people which parents would not believe against their own children.
There is one thing higher than Royalty: and that is religion, which causes us to leave the world, and seek God.
Though the sex to which I belong is considered weak you will nevertheless find me a rock that bends to no wind.
Fear not, we are of the nature of the lion, and cannot descend to the destruction of mice and such small beasts.
I would rather go to any extreme than suffer anything that is unworthy of my reputation, or of that of my crown.
If I follow the inclination of my nature, it is this: beggar-woman and single, far rather than queen and married.
To be a king and wear a crown is a thing more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasant to them that bear it.
It has been always held for a special principle in friendship that prosperity provideth but adversity proveth friends.
Monarchs ought to put to death the authors and instigators of war, as their sworn enemies and as dangers to their states.
I know I have 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.
[On being told Mary, Queen of Scots, was taller than she:] Then she is too high, for I myself am neither too high nor too low.
I find that I sent wolves not shepherds to govern Ireland, for they have left me nothing but ashes and carcasses to reign over!
There is nothing about which I am more anxious than my country, and for its sake I am willing to die ten deaths, if that be possible.
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.
Though I am not imperial, and though Elizabeth may not deserve it, the Queen of England will easily deserve to have an emperor's son to marry.
Be always faithful to me, as I always desire to keep you in peace; and if there have been wiser kings, none has ever loved you more than I have.
My mortal foe can no ways wish me a greater harm than England's hate; neither should death be less welcome unto me than such a mishap betide me.
[I]n the end this shall be for me sufficient, that a marble stone shall declare that a Queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin.
God has given such brave soldiers to this Crown that, if they do not frighten our neighbours, at least they prevent us from being frightened by them.
The use of sea and air is common to all; neither can a title to the ocean belong to any people or private persons, forasmuch as neither nature nor public use and custom permit any possession therof.
I am no lover of pompous title, but only desire that my name may be recorded in a line or two, which shall briefly express my name, my virginity, the years of my reign, the reformation of religion under it, and my preservation of peace.
Kings were wont to honour philosophers, but if I had such I would honour them as angels that should have such piety in them that they would not seek where they are the second to be the first, and where the third to be the second and so forth.
I will be as good unto ye as ever a Queen was unto her people. No will in me can lack, neither do I trust shall there lack any power. And persuade yourselves that for the safety and quietness of you all I will not spare if need be to spend my blood.
And therefore I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my blood, even the dust. I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too.
As for my own part I care not for death, for all men are mortal; and though I be a woman yet I have as good a courage answerable to my place as ever my father had. I am your anointed Queen. I will never be by violence constrained to do anything. I thank God I am indeed endowed 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.