Imperial Authority Quotes

Know, sir, that the first place in the empire is mine. From God I hold my power and my crown, and I depute them to no man--I alone reign in Austria.

What the city [Constantinople] contains is its own; beyond the walls it has no dominion—owns nothing. If I want to build a castle at the Sacred Mouth, it can’t forbid me. Tell your emperor this: The sultan who now rules is not like his predecessors. What they couldn’t achieve, he can do easily and at once. The things they did not wish to do, he certainly does. The next man who comes here on a mission like this will be flayed alive.

At the height of the British Empire very few English novels were written that dealt with British power. It's extraordinary that at the moment in which England was the global superpower the subject of British power appeared not to interest most writers.

A sahib has got to act like a sahib; he has got to appear resolute, to know his own mind and do definite things.

How is the Empire?

Empires just don’t bargain.

I had proposed to HBO a series about the city cops in Rome at the time of Nero. What had interested me was the idea of order without law. The Praetorian Guard, who were the emperor's guards, understood how they were to proceed. But for the city cops, who were called the Urban Cohorts, there was no law at all.

This is the reason, then, why Christians are counted public enemies: that they pay no vain, nor false, nor foolish honors to the emperor

[The Emperor] Vespasian's friends overcame his scruples by telling him that against Jews there could be no question of impiety, and that he ought to prefer expediency to decency when the two were incompatible.

There will be no morality in the world unless the Emperor abdicates as quickly as circumstances permit…. The Emperor bears responsibility for being extremely negligent in the performance of his duties. He permitted the behavior of the military cliques and for many years did not do what he should have done.

In 1559, Duke Frederick III was summoned before the Emperor Ferdinand I at Breslau to answer the accusations of extravagance and oppression brought against him by the Silesian Estates and was deposed, imprisoned, and his son Henry XI given the Ducal crown instead.

Between 1776 and 1789, Americans replaced a government over them with a government under them. They have worried ever since about keeping it under. Distrust of its powers has been more common and more visible than distrust of the imperial authority of England ever was before the Revolution.

If I can't have my own mate and my own children, then I can at least have my own kingdom.

The Supreme Court of the United States is hereby commanded to try Andrew Johnson for usurpation of our Imperial authority and prerogatives, and if found guilty, behead him or send him here to black the Emperor's boots.

Let your inimitable perfection in virtue stand up at a crisis like the present, and teach our most pious Emperor, that no gain will come from his zeal for the Church on other points if he allows such an evil to gain strength from freedom of speech for the subversion of sound faith.

He has committed four very grave offences, which cannot be covered up by any subterfuge...he has abjured God on many occasions; he has wantonly broken the peace which had been established between the Church and the Empire; he has also committed sacrilege by causing to be imprisoned the Cardinals of the holy Roman Church, and the prelates and clerics...coming to the council which our predecessor had summoned; he is also accused of heresy …. We absolve forever all who owe him allegiance in virtue of an oath of fealty.... Whoever shall in future afford him advice, help or goodwill as if he were Emperor or king, shall fall “ipso facto” under the binding force of excommunication.

Take care always to remember that you are a Roman.... Have a care you are not too much of a Caesar!

Since by the ordination of God I both am called and am Emperor of the Romans, in nothing but name shall I appear to be ruler if the control of the Roman city be wrested from my hands.

You know, the Brits had a way of - running an empire. And I don't think America is comfortable with an empire.

When two countries are connected together, like England and her colonies, without being incorporated, the one must necessarily govern; the greater must rule the less; but so rule it, as not to contradict the fundamental principles that are common to both.

St. Peter had no more authority than the other apostles, and was not the head over the other apostles; and that Christ left behind no head of the church, and did not appoint anyone as his vicar The emperor has the right to make and depose popes and to punish them All priests, whether pope or archbishop or simple priest, are, in accordance with the appointment of Christ, of equal authority and jurisdiction The whole church together can not punish any man with coactive punishment, without the permission of the emperor

The United States although a superpower was never an empire..

In the service of Caesar, everything is legitimate.

1st RULER and TYRANT of the AMERICAN EMPIRE

The emperor of the East was no longer guided by the wisdom and authority of his elder brother, whose death happened towards the end of the preceding year: and, as the distressful situation of the Goths required an instant and peremptory decision, he was deprived of the favourite resource of feeble and timid minds; who consider the use of dilatory and ambiguous measures as the most admirable efforts of consummate prudence.