Catherine the Great
I shall be an autocrat: that's my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that's his.Collection: Forgiveness
In politics a capable ruler must be guided by circumstances, conjectures and conjunctions.Collection: Politics
I beg you take courage; the brave soul can mend even disaster.Collection: Courage
I praise loudly. I blame softly.Collection: Wisdom
Men make love more intensely at 20, but make love better, however, at 30.Collection: Men
Power without a nation's confidence is nothing.Collection: Power
I may be kindly, I am ordinarily gentle, but in my line of business I am obliged to will terribly what I will at all.Collection: Business
A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.Collection: Imagination
You philosophers are lucky men. You write on paper and paper is patient. Unfortunate Empress that I am, I write on the susceptible skins of living beings.Collection: Men
The more a man knows, the more he forgives.
I am one of the people who love the why of things.
Your wit makes others witty.
I like to praise and reward loudly, to blame quietly.
In my position you have to read when you want to write and to talk when you would like to read.
All this is only for the mice and myself to admire!
For to tempt and to be tempted are things very nearly allied - whenever feeling has anything to do in the matter, no sooner is it excited than we have already gone vastly farther than we are aware of.
If Russians knew how to read, they would write me off.
I sincerely want peace, not because I lack resources for war, but because I hate bloodshed.Collection: Peace
it is better to inspire a reform than to enforce it.Collection: Change
One does not always do the best there is. One does the best one can.Collection: Doe
The laws ought to be so framed as to secure the safety of every citizen as much as possible. ... Political liberty does not consist in the notion that a man may do whatever he pleases; liberty is the right to do whatsoever the laws allow. ... The equality of the citizens consists in that they should all be subject to the same laws.Collection: Men
Happiness and unhappiness are in the heart and spirit of each one of us: If you feel unhappy, then place yourself above that and act so that your happiness does not get to be dependent on anything.Collection: Heart
Nothing is more difficult, in my opinion, than to avoid something that fundamentally attracts you.Collection: Opinion
Don't worry about things you cannot alterCollection: Worry
I cannot live one day without love.Collection: One Day
Experience shows that the frequent use of severe punishment has never rendered a people better. The death of a criminal is a less effective means of restraining crimes than the permanent example of a man deprived of his liberty during the whole of his life to make amends for the injury he has done to the public.Collection: Mean
The most sure, but at the same time the most difficult expedient to mend the morals of the people, is a perfect system of education.Collection: People
What right can give anyone authority to inflict torture upon a citizen when it is still unknown whether he is innocent or guilty?Collection: Giving
You were in a mood to quarrel. Please inform me once the inclination passes.Collection: Mood
self-interest usually brings injustice with it.Collection: Self
Any man who doesn't partake in cigar smoking is nothing more than a weak-willed, meandering oaf, and I would never put my lips to those of any creature, man or beast, whose lips were not fresh awash in the currents of cigar smoke.'Collection: Men
the title of Queen rang sweet to my ears, child though I was. ... This idea of a crown began running in my head then like a tune, and has been running a lot in it ever since.Collection: Running
you must be gay; only thus can life be endured. I speak from experience for I have had to endure much, and have only been able to endure it because I have always laughed whenever I had the chance.Collection: Laughter
I like to praise and reward in a loud voice and to scold in a whisper.Collection: Loud Voices
If I may venture to be frank I would say about myself that I was every inch a gentleman.Collection: Gentleman
The trouble is that my heart is loath to be without love even for a single hour. ... If you want to keep me forever, then show as much friendship as love, and more than anything else, love me and tell me the truth.Collection: Heart
Tell a thousand people to draft a letter, let them debate every phrase, and see how long it takes and what you get.Collection: Long
[On Peter III:] He did not have a bad heart; but a weak man usually has not.Collection: Heart
I do not love strife, because I have always found that in the end each remains of the same opinion.Collection: Opinion
Your wits make others witty.Collection: Witty
All punishments by which the human body might be maimed are barbarbarism.Collection: Punishment
bad news travels faster than good.Collection: Negativity
to tempt and be tempted are closely allied; and in spite of all the finest moral maxims buried in the mind, when emotion interferes, when feeling makes its appearance, one is already much further involved that one realizes, and I have still not learnt how to prevent its appearance.Collection: Feelings
You should know our mania for building is stronger than ever. It is a diabolical thing. It consumes money and the more you build, the more you want to build. It's a sickness like being addicted to alcohol.Collection: Alcohol
God, grant us our desires, and grant them quickly.Collection: Desire
Assuredly men of merit are never lacking at any time, for those are the men who manage affairs, and it is affairs that produce the men. I have never searched, and I have always found under my hand the men who have served me, and for the most part I have been well served.Collection: Men
The use of torture is contrary to sound judgment and common sense. Humanity itself cries out against it, and demands it to be utterly abolished.Collection: Common Sense
I praise loudly and I blame softly.Collection: Blame
Praise is the only gift for which people are really grateful. Marguerite, Countess of Blessington I praise loudly; I blame softly.Collection: Grateful
To tempt, and to be tempted, are things very nearly allied, and, in spite of the finest maxims of morality impressed upon the mind, whenever feeling has anything to do in the matter, no sooner is it excited than we have already gone vastly farther than we are aware of, and I have yet to learn how it is possible to prevent its being excited.Collection: Feelings