Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV of France (baptised as Louis-Dieudonné) (5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715) ruled as King of France and of the Navarre from 1643. Louis established the French absolute monarchy and made France the main political power in western Europe in his time.

Quotes

  • Toutes les fois que je donne une place vacante, je fais cent mécontents et un ingrat.
    • Every time that I fill a high office, I create a hundred discontented men and an ingrate.
      • Quoted in Voltaire, Le Siècle de Louis XIV (1751), ch.26
  • Il n'y a plus de Pyrénées.
    • The Pyrenees have ceased to exist.
      • On his grandson becoming King of Spain, quoted in Voltaire, Le Siècle de Louis XIV (1751), ch.28
  • Je mettrais plutôt toute l'Europe d'accord que deux femmes.
    • I could sooner reconcile all Europe than two women.


Disputed

  • L'État, c'est moi.
    • I am the State.
      • probably apocryphal; reported in the late 18th century: C. D. Erhard, Betrachtungen über Leopolds des Weisen Gesetzgebung in Toscana, Richter, 1791, p. 30. Widely known and denounced as apocryphal by the early 19th century. Jean Etienne François Marignié, The king can do no wrong: Le roi ne peut jamais avoit tort, le roi ne peut mal faire, Le Normant, 1818 p. 12
  • J'ai failli attendre.
    • I almost had to wait.
      • Regarded as apocryphal by E. Fournier, L'Esprit dans l'Histoire (4th ed. 1884). ch.xlviii
This article is issued from Wikiquote. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.