Louis Xiv

The ministers of kings should learn to moderate their ambition. The higher they elevate themselves above their proper sphere, the greater the danger that they will fall.

My child, you are going to be a great king; do not imitate me in the taste I have had for building, or in that I have had for war; try, on the contrary, to be at peace with your neighbors.

I am dying, but the state remains.

Every time I appoint someone to a vacant position, I make a hundred unhappy and one ungrateful.