Catherine the Great

In my position you have to read when you want to write and to talk when you would like to read.

In politics a capable ruler must be guided by circumstances, conjectures and conjunctions.

A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.

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.

Tell a thousand people to draft a letter, let them debate every phrase, and see how long it takes and what you get.

Your wit makes others witty.

This is no dress rehearsal.

Scriptures, n.: The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based.

In matters of style, swim with the current;In matters of principle, stand like a rock.

We live by the Golden Rule. Those who have the gold make the rules.

For them that think death’s honesty won’t fall upon them naturally life sometimes must get lonely.

Three most deleterious things of modern life in their present order of importance are: tobacco, alcohol and intemperate eating. Both alcohol and tobacco are taboo in plants.

I think I am actually humble. I think I’m much more humble than you would understand.

Prophesy is a good line of business, but it is full of risks.

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.

The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.

You have to figure out what that is, and you have to make a plan to get to it. And the plan has got to have a timeline. You have to choose something that you can afford to do and then lock it in and passionately do it.

Let us not, however, upon this account rashly conclude that she is capable of supporting any burden, nor even be too confident that she could support, without great distress, a burden a little greater than what has already been laid upon her.

We don’t see the things the way they are. We see things the way WE are.