Top 37 Quotes & Sayings by Louis XIV

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a French royalty Louis XIV.

Last updated on December 21, 2024.

Louis XIV, also known as Louis the Great or the Sun King, 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. Although 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, de Lalande, Le Brun, Rigaud, Bossuet, Le Vau, Mansart, Charles Perrault, Claude Perrault and Le Nôtre.

French - Royalty | September 5, 1638 - September 1, 1715

Source: Wikipedia

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

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

Louis XIV

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

Louis XIV

Has God forgotten all I have done for Him.

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

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

It is impossible to please all the world.

Louis XIV

The King of Spain displayed his esteem for me in a manner that I confess flattered me pleasantly when, after the death of Don Luis de Haro, he stated publicly in front of all the foreign ambassadors that he wanted to follow my example in not having a prime minister any longer.

Louis XIV

It is legal because I wish it.

Louis XIV

First feelings are always the most natural.

Louis XIV

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

Louis XIV

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

Louis XIV

I am dying, but the state remains.

Louis XIV

Always follow good counsels.

Louis XIV

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

Louis XIV

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

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

The Pyrenees are no more.

Louis XIV

I am the state.

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

Laws are the sovereigns of sovereigns.

Louis XIV

I could sooner reconcile all Europe than two women.

Louis XIV

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

Louis XIV

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

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

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

Only small minds want always to be right.

Louis XIV

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

Louis XIV

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

Louis XIV

Impatience for victory guarantees defeat

Louis XIV

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

Louis XIV

I see no point in reading.

Louis XIV

One king, one law, one faith.

Louis XIV

Up to this moment I have been pleased to entrust the government of my affairs to the late Cardinal. It is now time that I govern them myself. You [secretaries and ministers of state] will assist me with your counsels when I ask for them. I request and order you to seal no orders except by my command, . . . I order you not to sign anything, not even a passport . . . without my command; to render account to me personally each day and to favor no one.

Louis XIV

I am the State. [Fr., L'etat c'est moi.]

Louis XIV

Has God forgotten everything I've done for him ?

Louis XIV