Quote

I may be kindly, I am ordinarily gentle, but in my line of business I am obliged to will terribly what I will at all.

Catherine the Great

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Catherine the Great
Age: 67 †
Born: 1729
Born: May 2
Died: 1796
Died: November 6
Art Collector
Former Emperor Of All Russia
Monarch
Politician
Stettin
Ekaterina Alexeyevna
Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst
Empress Catherine II
Екатерина II Великая
Czarina of Russia Catherine II
Empress of Russia Catherine II
Catherine II
Ekaterina II of Russia
Catherine the Great
Gentle
Line
Lines
Business
May
Ordinarily
Kindly
Terribly
Obliged

More quotes by Catherine the Great

Image
If Russians knew how to read, they would write me off.
Catherine the Great
Image
Don't worry about things you cannot alter
Catherine the Great
Image
Nothing is more difficult, in my opinion, than to avoid something that fundamentally attracts you.
Catherine the Great
Image
Men make love more intensely at 20, but make love better, however, at 30.
Catherine the Great
Image
I like to praise and reward in a loud voice and to scold in a whisper.
Catherine the Great
Image
bad news travels faster than good.
Catherine the Great
Image
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.
Catherine the Great
Image
you must be gay only thus can life be endured. I speak from experience for I have had to endure much, and have only been able to endure it because I have always laughed whenever I had the chance.
Catherine the Great
Image
Experience shows that the frequent use of severe punishment has never rendered a people better. The death of a criminal is a less effective means of restraining crimes than the permanent example of a man deprived of his liberty during the whole of his life to make amends for the injury he has done to the public.
Catherine the Great
Image
Power without a nation's confidence is nothing.
Catherine the Great
Image
A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.
Catherine the Great
Image
The laws ought to be so framed as to secure the safety of every citizen as much as possible. ... Political liberty does not consist in the notion that a man may do whatever he pleases liberty is the right to do whatsoever the laws allow. ... The equality of the citizens consists in that they should all be subject to the same laws.
Catherine the Great
Image
[On Peter III:] He did not have a bad heart but a weak man usually has not.
Catherine the Great
Image
To tempt, and to be tempted, are things very nearly allied, and, in spite of the finest maxims of morality impressed upon the mind, whenever feeling has anything to do in the matter, no sooner is it excited than we have already gone vastly farther than we are aware of, and I have yet to learn how it is possible to prevent its being excited.
Catherine the Great
Image
If I may venture to be frank I would say about myself that I was every inch a gentleman.
Catherine the Great
Image
Tell a thousand people to draft a letter, let them debate every phrase, and see how long it takes and what you get.
Catherine the Great
Image
Your wit makes others witty.
Catherine the Great
Image
it is better to inspire a reform than to enforce it.
Catherine the Great
Image
The most sure, but at the same time the most difficult expedient to mend the morals of the people, is a perfect system of education.
Catherine the Great
Image
Assuredly men of merit are never lacking at any time, for those are the men who manage affairs, and it is affairs that produce the men. I have never searched, and I have always found under my hand the men who have served me, and for the most part I have been well served.
Catherine the Great