Quotes from Louis XIV

The King of Spain displayed his esteem for me in a manner that I confess flattered me pleasantly when, after the death of Don Luis de Haro, he stated publicly in front of all the foreign ambassadors that he wanted to follow my example in not having a prime minister any longer.

My child, you are going to be a great king; do not imitate me in the taste I have had for building, or in that I have had for war; try, on the contrary, to be at peace with your neighbors.

Has God forgotten everything I've done for him ?

It is impossible to please all the world.

Ah, if I were not king, I should lose my temper.

Always follow good counsels.

It is legal because I wish it.

We can do all we wish while we live; afterward, we are less than the meanest.

You have only to see what became of my father's will immediately after his death, and the wills of so many other kings. I know it well; but nevertheless, they have wished it; they gave me no rest nor repose, no calm until it was done.

The ministers of kings should learn to moderate their ambition. The higher they elevate themselves above their proper sphere, the greater the danger that they will fall.

The years go by one after the other; time slips past us with out our being aware of it; we grow old like ordinary men and we shall end like them.

Every time I appoint someone to a vacant position, I make a hundred unhappy and one ungrateful.

Every time I fill a vacant office, I make ten malcontents and one ingrate.

As for restitutions, to nobody in particular do I owe any, but as for those I owe to the realm, I hope in the mercy of God.

Has God forgotten all I have done for Him.

I have made my will; I have been tormented to do it. I have bought repose; I know the powerlessness and inutility of it.

Render to God what you owe him; recognize the obligations you are under to him.

Only small minds want always to be right.

That's what troubles me: I should like to suffer more for the expiation of my sins.

First feelings are always the most natural.

I would have praised you more had you praised me less.

I am the State.

There is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself.

My court was divided between peace and war according to their various interests, but I considered only their reasons.