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Quotes by Louis XIV

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Wikipedia Summary for Louis XIV

Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great (Louis le Grand) or the Sun King (le Roi Soleil), was King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest recorded of any monarch of a sovereign country in history. Louis XIV's France was emblematic of the age of absolutism in Europe. The King surrounded himself with a variety of significant political, military, and cultural figures, such as Mazarin, Colbert, Louvois, the Grand Condé, Turenne, Vauban, Boulle, Molière, Racine, Boileau, La Fontaine, Lully, Charpentier, Marais, Le Brun, Rigaud, Bossuet, Le Vau, Mansart, Charles Perrault, Claude Perrault, and Le Nôtre.

Louis began his personal rule of France in 1661, after the death of his chief minister, the Cardinal Mazarin. An adherent of the concept of the divine right of kings, Louis continued his predecessors' work of creating a centralised state governed from the capital. He sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism persisting in parts of France and, by compelling many members of the nobility to inhabit his lavish Palace of Versailles, succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy, many members of which had participated in the Fronde rebellion during his minority. By these means he became one of the most powerful French monarchs and consolidated a system of absolute monarchy in France that endured until the French Revolution. He also enforced uniformity of religion under the Gallican Catholic Church. His revocation of the Edict of Nantes abolished the rights of the Huguenot Protestant minority and subjected them to a wave of dragonnades, effectively forcing Huguenots to emigrate or convert, and virtually destroying the French Protestant community.

During Louis' long reign, France emerged as the leading European power and regularly asserted its military strength. A conflict with Spain marked his entire childhood, while during his reign, the kingdom took part in three major continental conflicts, each against powerful foreign alliances: the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg, and the War of the Spanish Succession. In addition, France also contested shorter wars, such as the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions. Warfare defined Louis's foreign policy and his personality shaped his approach. Impelled by "a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique", he sensed that war was the ideal way to enhance his glory. In peacetime he concentrated on preparing for the next war. He taught his diplomats that their job was to create tactical and strategic advantages for the French military.

Significant achievements during his reign which would go on to have a wide influence on the Early Modern Era well into the Industrial Revolution and up to today, include the construction of the canal du midi, the creation of the Palace and Gardens of Versailles, the sponsorship and patronage of such artists and composers as Jean-Baptiste de Lully, Molière, and Hyacinthe Rigaud, as well as the founding of the French Academy of Sciences, among others.

I see no point in reading.

--Louis XIV

I am the State.

Fr., L'etat c'est moi.

--Louis XIV

I am the state.

--Louis XIV

One king, one law, one faith.

--Louis XIV

The Last Argument of Kings.

--Louis XIV

Heaven deprives me of a wife who never caused me any other grief than that of her death.

--Louis XIV

Why are you weeping ? Did you imagine that I was immortal ?

--Louis XIV

The years go by one after the other; time slips past us with out our being aware of it; we grow old like ordinary men and we shall end like them.

--Louis XIV

Why do you weep? Did you think I was immortal?

--Louis XIV

Only small minds want always to be right.

--Louis XIV

In every treaty, insert a clause which can easily be violated, so that the entire agreement can be broken in case the interests of the State make it expedient to do so.

--Louis XIV

Every time I fill a vacant office, I make ten malcontents and one ingrate.

--Louis XIV

My court was divided between peace and war according to their various interests, but I considered only their reasons.

--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.

--Louis XIV

That's what troubles me: I should like to suffer more for the expiation of my sins.

--Louis XIV

As for restitutions, to nobody in particular do I owe any, but as for those I owe to the realm, I hope in the mercy of God.

--Louis XIV

You have only to see what became of my father's will immediately after his death, and the wills of so many other kings. I know it well; but nevertheless, they have wished it; they gave me no rest nor repose, no calm until it was done.

--Louis XIV

We can do all we wish while we live; afterward, we are less than the meanest.

--Louis XIV

I could sooner reconcile all Europe than two women.

--Louis XIV

The Pyrenees are no more.

--Louis XIV

I am dying, but the state remains.

--Louis XIV

Laws are the sovereigns of sovereigns.

--Louis XIV

Has God forgotten all I have done for Him.

--Louis XIV

It is impossible to please all the world.

--Louis XIV

Always follow good counsels.

--Louis XIV

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.

--Louis XIV

Every time I bestow a vacant office I make a hundred discontented persons and one ingrate.

--Louis XIV

Ah, if I were not king, I should lose my temper.

--Louis XIV

Every time I create an appointment, I create a hundred malcontents and one ingrate.

--Louis XIV

It is legal because I wish it.

--Louis XIV

Render to God what you owe him; recognize the obligations you are under to him.

--Louis XIV

I have made my will; I have been tormented to do it. I have bought repose; I know the powerlessness and inutility of it.

--Louis XIV

There is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself.

--Louis XIV

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

--Louis XIV

First feelings are always the most natural.

--Louis XIV