"Sire, when Kings involve themselves with the works of the people, the people involve themselves in the works of a King!"
FRANÇOIS GAMAIN TO LOUIS XVI (Gamain was the royal locksmith)
"During that first moment the court was worse than a desert; people left by night under borrowed names."
COMTESSE D'ADHÉMAR (after the storming of the Bastille)
"I was a Queen and you took away my crown; a wife and you killed my husband; a mother and you deprived me of my children. My blood alone remains, take it but do not make me suffer long."
MARIE ANTOINETTE
"To make a fortune at court, one must be very well-behaved or completely mad, very modest or very insolent; the first merit everything while gambling nothing. The others manage to pick up something while gambling everything."
CHARLES DUFRESNY
"Nothing bores and tires me as much as this artificial activity, this idle occupation, this importance given to the puerile things which make up the life of a courtesan."
COMTESSE DE BOIGNE (about the etiquette at Versailles)
"Ah, if I were not King, I should lose my temper"
LOUIS XIV
"When he must threaten, he has lightening in his hands. Every King, without elevating himself above humans, can against criminals throw thunder; but when he makes people happy, he is god on earth."
