The phrase, "the Empire on which the sun never sets", has been used with variations to describe certain global empires that were so extensive that there was always at least one part of their territory in daylight.
It was originally used for the Spanish Empire, mainly in the 16th and 17th centuries, and for the British Empire, mainly in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Especially in the 20th century, the metaphor (usually without the word "Empire") has been transferred to refer to American power.
Georg Büchmann traces the idea to a speech in Herodotus' Histories, made by Xerxes I of Persia before invading Greece.
Read more about The Empire On Which The Sun Never Sets: Spain, United Kingdom, United States, Punning Variations
Famous quotes containing the words empire, sun and/or sets:
“That is the great end of empires before God, to be Catholic and draw nations into their Catholicism. But our empire is less and less Christian as it grows.”
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)
“With the noise of the mourning of the Swattish nation!
Fallen is at length
Its tower of strength;
Its sun is dimmed ere it had nooned;
Dead lies the great Ahkoond,
The great Ahkoond of Swat
Is not!”
—George Thomas Lanigan (1845–1886)
“In the beautiful, man sets himself up as the standard of perfection; in select cases he worships himself in it.... Man believes that the world itself is filled with beauty—he forgets that it is he who has created it. He alone has bestowed beauty upon the world—alas! only a very human, an all too human, beauty.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)