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I shall be an autocrat: that's my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that's his.

Catherine the Great

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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
Work
Autocrat
Good
Forgive
Forgiveness
Forgiving
Trade
Teaching
Shall
Lord

More quotes by Catherine the Great

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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
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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
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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
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Nothing is more difficult, in my opinion, than to avoid something that fundamentally attracts you.
Catherine the Great
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Men make love more intensely at 20, but make love better, however, at 30.
Catherine the Great
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If I may venture to be frank I would say about myself that I was every inch a gentleman.
Catherine the Great
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I am one of the people who love the why of things.
Catherine the Great
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Power without a nation's confidence is nothing.
Catherine the Great
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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
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bad news travels faster than good.
Catherine the Great
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A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.
Catherine the Great
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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
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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
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If Russians knew how to read, they would write me off.
Catherine the Great
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The trouble is that my heart is loath to be without love even for a single hour. ... If you want to keep me forever, then show as much friendship as love, and more than anything else, love me and tell me the truth.
Catherine the Great
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Any man who doesn't partake in cigar smoking is nothing more than a weak-willed, meandering oaf, and I would never put my lips to those of any creature, man or beast, whose lips were not fresh awash in the currents of cigar smoke.'
Catherine the Great
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Don't worry about things you cannot alter
Catherine the Great
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Your wit makes others witty.
Catherine the Great
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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
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All punishments by which the human body might be maimed are barbarbarism.
Catherine the Great