Best 109 quotes of Elizabeth I on MyQuotes

I pluck up the good lissome herbs of sentences by pruning, eat them by reading, digest them by musing, and lay them up at length in the high seat of memory.

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

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

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

I thank God I am endued 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.

It has been always held for a special principle in friendship that prosperity provideth but adversity proveth friends.

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

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

It is monstrous that the feet should direct the head.

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.

I would gladly chastise those who represent things as different from what they are. Those who steal property or make counterfeit money are punished, and those ought to be still more severely dealt with who steal away or falsify the good name of a prince.

I would not open windows into men's souls.

Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Monarchs ought to put to death the authors and instigators of war, as their sworn enemies and as dangers to their states.

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

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.

My care is like my shadow in the sun, Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it, Stands and lies by me, doth what I have done.

My loving people, we have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourself to armed multitudes for fear of treachery; but I assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a King of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any Prince of Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realm.

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.

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

Of myself I must say this, I never was any greedy, scraping grasper, nor a strait fast-holding prince, nor yet a master; my heart was never set on worldly goods, but only for my subjects' good.

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

[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.

Prosperity provideth, but adversity proveth friends.

The daughter of debate That still discord doth sow.

The doubt of future foes exiles my present joy.

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

There is a close tie of affection between sovereigns and their subjects; and as chaste wives should have no eyes but for their husbands, so faithful liegemen should keep their regards at home and not look after foreign crowns. For my part I like not for my sheep to wear a stranger's mark nor to dance after a foreigner's whistle.

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

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.

There is nothing in the world I hold in greater horror than to see a body moving against its head: and I shall be very careful notto ally myself with such a monster.

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

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

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.

There will never Queen sit in my seat with more zeal to my country, care to my subjects and that will sooner with willingness venture her life for your good and safety than myself. For it is my desire to live nor reign no longer than my life and reign shall be for your good. And though you have had, and may have, many princes more mighty and wise sitting in this seat, yet you never had nor shall have, any that will be more careful and loving.

The sea, as well as the air, is a free and common thing to all; and a particular nation cannot pretend to have the right to the exclusion of all others, without violating the rights of nature and public usage.

The true sin against the Holy Ghost is ingratitude.

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.

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

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

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.

[To Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, on his return from self-imposed exile, occasioned by the embarrassing flatulence he had experienced in the presence of the Queen:] My Lord, I had forgot the fart.

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

we Princes are set as it were upon stages, in the sight and view of all the world. The least spot is soon spied in our garments, a blemish quickly noticed in our doings.

When I was fair and young, and favor graced me, Of many was I sought, their mistress for to be; But I did scorn them all, and answered them therefore, "Go, go, go seek some otherwhere! Importune me no more!