Louis XIV Quotes

I am the government.

There never was that government called a republic, which was not ultimately ruled by a single will, and, therefore, (however bold may seem the paradox,) virtually and substantially a monarchy.

Rulers come and go; governments end and forms of government change; but sovereignty survives.

There must be in all [societies and governments] a supreme, irresistable, absolute, uncontrolled authority.

While the state exists there is no freedom; when there is freedom, there will be no state.

It is not good to have a rule of many.

Democracy passes into despotism.

What are kings, when regiment is gone, but perfect shadows in a sunshine day?

The greatest power is not money power, but political power.

You had better have one King than five hundred.

Within the Russian system, everything depends on the character of those few who hold full power in their hands. The position of the individual within present-day Russia has been described as follows: far-reaching economic security by sacrificing personal liberty.

The will of the people makes governments legitimate.

Government is force.

Conquest gives a title which the courts of the conqueror cannot deny.

What is a government for except to dictate. If it does not dictate, then it is not a government.

You need a head of state--with continuity. Sometimes this is more important than political power.

It is certain that, so soon as the people submit to a king, really such, they have no longer the supreme power.

All governments must maintain power by consent. Not by coercion.

To rule means to exercise power, and only he who possesses power can exercise it. This direct connection of power and rule forms the fundamental truth of all politics and the key to all history.

In no form of government is there an absolute identity of interest between the people and their rulers

If ... America is to become an empire, there is very little chance that it can avoid becoming a virtual dictatorship as well.

All [political] parties, without exception, when they seek for power, are varieties of absolutism.

I have taken my flight in the region of eagles; when I alight, it must be on a rock, and that rock must be a constitutional government, of which I shall be the head so long as I shall be among men.

A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness.

If you don't know the difference between dictatorship and leadership then you got to go back to a fifth grade civics class.