Famous Quotes

Quotes by Elizabeth I

• A strength to harm is perilous in the hand of an ambitious head.
• Do not tell secrets to those whose faith and silence you have not already tested.
• Fear not, we are of the nature of the lion, and cannot descend to the destruction of mice and such small beasts.
• First, I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being. In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness. I admired and respected her - for her energy and commitment to others, and especially for her devotion to her two boys.
• Grief is the price we pay for love.
• I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else - I can give my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.
• 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 do not want a husband who honours me as a queen, if he does not love me as a woman.
• I have behind me not only the splendid traditions and the annals of more than a thousand years but the living strength and majesty of the Commonwealth and Empire of societies old and new of lands and races different in history and origins but all, by God's Will, united in spirit and in aim.
• I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust.
• I hope that tomorrow we can all, wherever we are, join in expressing our grief at Diana's loss, and gratitude for her all-too-short life. It is a chance to show to the whole world the British nation united in grief and respect.
• I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together.
• I would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married.
• In remembering the appalling suffering of war on both sides, we recognise how precious is the peace we have built in Europe since 1945.
• Like all best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters and of family disagreements.
• Monarchs ought to put to death the authors and instigators of war, as their sworn enemies and as dangers to their states.
• My husband has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years, and I owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim.
• 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.
• The lessons from the peace process are clear whatever life throws at us, our individual responses will be all the stronger for working together and sharing the load.
• The upward course of a nation's history is due in the long run to the soundness of heart of its average men and women.
• There is one thing higher than Royalty: and that is religion, which causes us to leave the world, and seek God.
• Therefore I am sure that this, my Coronation, is not the symbol of a power and a splendor that are gone but a declaration of our hopes for the future, and for the years I may, by God's Grace and Mercy, be given to reign and serve you as your Queen.
• To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy. With the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all.
• What were once only hopes for the future have now come to pass it is almost exactly 13 years since the overwhelming majority of people in Ireland and Northern Ireland voted in favour of the agreement signed on Good Friday 1998, paving the way for Northern Ireland to become the exciting and inspirational place that it is today.
• Where might is mixed with wit, there is too good an accord in a government.