The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (153 page)
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Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
1533–1603
The queen of Scots is this day leichter of a fair son, and I am but a barren stock.
to her ladies, June 1566
I know what it is to be a subject, what to be a Sovereign, what to have good neighbours, and sometimes meet evil-willers.
speech to a Parliamentary deputation at Richmond, 12 November 1586, from a report "which the Queen herself heavily amended in her own hand"
In trust I have found treason.
traditional concluding words of the speech to a Parliamentary deputation at Richmond, 12 November 1586
I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too; and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm.
speech to the troops at Tilbury on the approach of the Armada, 1588
The daughter of debate, that eke discord doth sow.
on Mary Queen of Scots
George Puttenham (ed.)
The Art of English Poesie
(1589) bk. 3, ch. 20
Though God hath raised me high, yet this I count the glory of my crown: that I have reigned with your loves.
The Golden Speech, 1601
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.
to Robert Cecil, on his saying she must go to bed, shortly before her death
J. R. Green
A Short History of the English People
(1874) ch. 7
If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.
lines after Sir Walter Ralegh, written on a window-pane
Thomas Fuller
Worthies of England
vol. 1.
I would not open windows into men's souls.
oral tradition, in J. B. Black
Reign of Elizabeth 1558–1603
(1936)
All my possessions for a moment of time.
last words; attributed, but almost certainly apocryphal
1926–
I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great Imperial family to which we all belong.
broadcast speech, as Princess Elizabeth, to the Commonwealth from Cape Town, 21 April 1947
In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an "annus horribilis".
speech at Guildhall, London, 24 November 1992
I for one believe that there are lessons to be drawn from her life and from the extraordinary and moving reaction to her death.
broadcast from Buckingham Palace on the evening before the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, 5 September 1997
in
The Times
6 September 1997
, the Queen Mother 1900–2002
I'm glad we've been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face.
to a London policeman, 13 September 1940
John Wheeler-Bennett
King George VI
(1958) pt. 3, ch. 6
The Princesses would never leave without me and I couldn't leave without the King, and the King will never leave.
on the suggestion that the royal family be evacuated during the Blitz
Penelope Mortimer
Queen Elizabeth
(1986) ch. 25
1826–93
The day Thou gavest, Lord, is ended,
The darkness falls at Thy behest.
Hymn (1870), the first line borrowed from an earlier, anonymous hymn