Quotes By Elizabeth I

I would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married.

Monarchs ought to put to death the authors and instigators of war, as their sworn enemies and as dangers to their states.

The past cannot be cured.

One man with a head on his shoulders is worth a dozen without.

Though the sex to which I belong is considered weak you will nevertheless find me a rock that bends to no wind.

Where minds differ and opinions swerve there is scant a friend in that company.

I do not want a husband who honours me as a queen, if he does not love me as a woman.

If we still advise we shall never do.

The end crowneth the work.

The word must is not to be used to princes.

To be a king and wear a crown is a thing more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasant to them that bear it.

A fool too late bewares when all the peril is past.

The stone often recoils on the head of the thrower.

All my possessions for a moment of time.

My mortal foe can no ways wish me a greater harm than England's hate; neither should death be less welcome unto me than such a mishap betide me.

I find that I sent wolves not shepherds to govern Ireland, for they have left me nothing but ashes and carcasses to reign over!

I would rather go to any extreme than suffer anything that is unworthy of my reputation, or of that of my crown.

I do not so much rejoice that God hath made me to be a Queen, as to be a Queen over so thankful a people.

I shall lend credit to nothing against my people which parents would not believe against their own children.

Fear not, we are of the nature of the lion, and cannot descend to the destruction of mice and such small beasts.

God forgive you, but I never can.

Must! Is must a word to be addressed to princes? Little man, little man! Thy father, if he had been alive, durst not have used that word.

I do not choose that my grave should be dug while I am still alive.

A strength to harm is perilous in the hand of an ambitious head.

He who placed me in this seat will keep me here.

Do not tell secrets to those whose faith and silence you have not already tested.

I have the heart of a man, not a woman, and I am not afraid of anything.

I pray to God that I shall not live one hour after I have thought of using deception.

Though I am not imperial, and though Elizabeth may not deserve it, the Queen of England will easily deserve to have an emperor's son to marry.

Brass shines as fair to the ignorant as gold to the goldsmiths.