Elizabeth I quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Elizabeth I on Wise Famous Quotes.

I regret the unhappiness of princes who are slaves to forms and fettered by caution.

Affection! Affection is false.

It is good to jest, but not to make a trade of jesting.

Anger will make a dull man witty, but very little money.

The true sin against the Holy Ghost is ingratitude.

I will never be by violence constrained to do anything.

I do not choose that my grave should be dug while I am still alive.

A meal of bread, cheese and beer constitutes the perfect food.

Fear not, we are of the nature of the lion, and cannot descend to the destruction of mice and such small beasts.

Life is for living and working at. If you find anything or anybody a bore, the fault is in yourself.

I do not want a husband who honours me as a queen, if he does not love me as a woman.

The doubt of future foes exiles my present joy.

I may not be a lion,but I am lions cub and I have lion's heart

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.

He who placed me in this seat will keep me here.

My seat has been the seat of kings, and I will have no rascal to succeed me.

Brass shines as fair to the ignorant as gold to the goldsmiths.

Mr. Doctor, that loose gown becomes you so well I wonder your notions should be so narrow.

I would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married.

Who seeketh two strings to one bow, they may shoot strong, but never straight ...

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, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king

He that will forget God, will also forget his benefactors.

I know I have but 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.

Let the good service of well-deservers be never rewarded with loss. Let their thanks be such as may encourage more strivers for the like.

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.

It is a natural virtue incident to our sex to be pitiful of those that are afflicted.

Where might is mixed with wit, there is too good an accord in a government.

[On Thomas Seymour's death:] This day died a man of much wit and very little judgment.

Prosperity provideth, but adversity proveth friends.

A clear and innocent conscience fears nothing

I have no desire to make windows into mens souls.

[To Parliament, when it urged her to marry and settle the succession:] You attend to your own duties and I'll perform mine.

Chastity is the ermine of woman's soul.

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.

There is an Italian proverb which saith, From my enemy let me defend myself; but from a pretensed friend Lord deliver me

I am already bound unto an husband, which is the kingdom of England.

Proud Prelate, you know what you were before I made you what you are. If you do not immediately comply with my request I will unfrock you by God!

If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.

Though God hath raised me high, yet this I count the glory of my crown: That I have reigned with your loves.

A fool too late bewares when all the peril is past.

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 find that I sent wolves not shepherds to govern Ireland, for they have left me nothing but ashes and carcasses to reign over!

When we hang on to resentments, we poison ourselves. As compulsive overeaters, we cannot afford resentment, since it exacerbates our disease.

I would not have my sheep branded with any other mark than my own, or follow the whistle of a strange shepherd.

If we still advise we shall never do.

There is no marvel in a woman learning to speak, but there would be in teaching her to hold her tongue

Young heads take example of the ancient

There is only one Christ, Jesus, one faith. All else is a dispute over trifles.

The word must is not to be used to princes.

The end crowneth the work.

I will have but one mistress and no master

I observe and remain silent.

I shall lend credit to nothing against my people which parents would not believe against their own children.

I pray to God that I shall not live one hour after I have thought of using deception.

A strength to harm is perilous in the hand of an ambitious head.

It is hard to find beauty in the art of self expression.

Grief never ends, but it changes. It is a passage, not a place to stay. Grief is not a sign of weakness nor a lack of faith: it is the price of love.

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.

I would not open windows into men's souls.

The name of a successor is like the tolling of my own death-bell!

Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.

I don't keep a dog and bark myself.

There is one thing higher than Royalty: and that is religion, which causes us to leave the world, and seek God.

[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.

[ellipsis in source] it is true that the world was made in six days, but it was by God, to whose power the infirmity of men isnot to be compared.

Semper eadem", always the same...

No foteball player be used or suffered within the City of London and the liberties thereof upon pain of imprisonment.

O Fortune, how thy restless, wavering state has fraught with cares my troubled wit!

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.

Words are leaves, the substance consists of deeds, which are the true fruits of a good tree.

Where minds differ and opinions swerve there is scant a friend in that company.

Had I been crested, not cloven, my Lords, you had not treated me thus.

Those who appear the most sanctified are the worst.

Men fight wars. Women win them.

They best pass over the world who trip over it quickly; for it is but a bog. If we stop, we sink.

I have seen many a man turn his gold into smoke, but you are the first who has turned smoke into gold.

The past can not be cured.

[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.

God forgive you, but I never can.

I have already joined myself in marriage to a husband, namely the kingdom of England.

I cannot find it in me to fear a man who took ten years a learning of his alphabet.

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.

Much suspected by me, Nothing proved can be

[When opposed by leaders of her Council:] I will make you shorter by the head!

All my possessions for a moment of time.

A good face is the best letter of recommendation.

There is small disproportion betwixt a fool who useth not wit because he hath it not and him that useth it not when it should avail him.

Ye may have a greater prince, but ye shall never have a more loving prince.

Though the sex to which I belong is considered weak you will nevertheless find me a rock that bends to no wind.

For it is monstrous that the feet should direct the head.

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.

Be of good cheer, for you will never want, for the bullet was meant for me, though it hit you.

One man with a head on his shoulders is worth a dozen without.

If I follow the inclination of my nature, it is this: beggar-woman and single, far rather than queen and married.

I am more afraid of making a fault in my Latin than of the Kings of Spain, France, Scotland, the whole House of Guise, and all of their confederates.

The daughter of debate That still discord doth sow.

Princes have big ears which hear far and near.

I have the heart of a man, not a woman, and I am not afraid of anything.

I would rather go to any extreme than suffer anything that is unworthy of my reputation, or of that of my crown.