Quotes About Kings

Boileau said that Kings, Gods, and Heroes only were fit subjects for literature. The writer can only write about what he admires. Present day kings aren't very inspiring, the gods are on a vacation, and about the only heroes left are the scientists and the poor. . . . And since our race admires gallantry, the writer will deal with it where he finds it. He finds it in the struggling poor now." —Steinbeck in a 1939 radio interview

Gone are the Kings, gone are their towering prows, Vanished upon the raging deep, alas, The long-haired warrior heroes of Hellas.

Bro! Tell me we still know how to speak of kings! In the old days, everyone knew what men were: brave, bold, glory-bound. Only stories now, but I'll sound the Spear-Danes' song, hoarded for hungry times.

to found a fraternal society of their own. Humbler than its illustrious Vienna equivalent, their Filiki Etaireia (Friendly Society) would turn out to be the catalyst for Europe's first successful national revolution, ultimately forcing kings and diplomats to change their entire approach to the management of the European peace.11

All kings is mostly rapscallions.

It is an old prerogative of kings to govern everything but their passions.

The rest of all the acts of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Nevertheless in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet.

King David and King Solomon Led merry, merry lives, With many, many lady friends And many, many wives; But when old age crept over them, With many, many qualms, King Solomon wrote the Proverbs And King David wrote the Psalms.

All we who believe on Christ are kings and priests in Christ.

where there is war there's spoil. From this it was not far to roving on adventure. Young men could set themselves up in life; kings could grow rich without hard taxes, which pleased their people;

The gods of men are sillier than their kings and queens, and emptier and more powerless.

Natural rights theory arose during the Enlightenment to counter the belief in the divine right of kings, and became the basis of the social contract that gave rise to democracy, a superior system for the protection of human rights. This is what the English philosopher John Locke had in mind in his 1690 Second Treatise of Government (written to rebut Sir Robert Filmer's 1680 Patriarcha, which defended the divine right of kings8

See, the Serpent is taken from its hole, The secrets of Egypt's kings are bared. See, the residence is fearful from want. Men stir up strife unopposed. See, the land is tied up in gangs, The coward is emboldened to seize his goods. See, the Serpent the dead. He who could not make a coffin owns a tomb. See, those who owned tombs are cast on high ground, He who could not make a grave owns a treasury. See now, the transformations of people, He who did not build a hut is an owner of coffers.

Do away with emperors, kings, and artificial government; establish true equality; abolish capitalism; live in God's heart, simply and purely!

Universal love is really the way of the sage-kings. It is what gives peace to the rulers and sustenance to the people

Most kings should be entertained because they lack talent except killing and scolding others.

Since God is immortal and not like our kings who come and go, the prince will never reign. That's what we mean when we say we believe in only one living God.

Some kings may serve voluntarily while others will end up exploiting their citizens day and night.

The church is to live as the alternative polis, not by separating itself into sectarian isolation but by bearing witness, like Daniel and his friends, before kings and rulers. The aim is not to damn, but to redeem; the leaves on the tree are for the healing of the nations, and the gates stand open for the kings of the earth to bring their treasures. Only if we keep that goal before us will we avoid the isolation which is the mirror image of collusion.

Men went by ways of old Gods or not of any Gods, but by the violent wills of kings who were their own law.

I have closed the gaping abyss of anarchy, and I have unscrambled chaos, I have cleansed the Revolution, ennobled the common people, and restored the authority of kings. I have stirred all men to competition, I have rewarded merit wherever I found it, I have pushed back the boundaries of greatness.

Posterity alone rightly judges kings. Posterity alone has the right to accord or withhold honors.

How swiftly fate can make or unmake kings.

Censorship, after all, is the tribute tyrants pay to the assumption that a public knows the difference between serious discourse and entertainment—and cares. How delighted would be all the kings, czars and führers of the past (and commissars of the present) to know that censorship is not a necessity when all political discourse takes the form of a jest.