Quotes
There is no proof that he ever said "L'État, c'est moi" ("I am the state"). Although historians agree that broad decision-making was restricted to Louis and a small circle of advisers, a careful analysis of how the French monarchy functioned in Louis's day will demonstrate numerous qualifications to the conception of Absolutism as one-dimensional autocratic tyranny. In any case, legal documents clearly distinguished between the monarch as a person and his kingdom. In support of this latter interpretation of facts, Louis is recorded by numerous eyewitnesses as having said on his deathbed: "Je m'en vais, mais l'État demeurera toujours." ("I depart, but the State shall always remain.")
Read more about this topic: Louis XIV Of France
Famous quotes containing the word quotes:
“Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say “I think,” “I am,” but quotes some saint or sage.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A great man quotes bravely, and will not draw on his invention when his memory serves him with a word as good. What he quotes, he fills with his own voice and humour, and the whole cyclopedia of his table-talk is presently believed to be his own.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I quote another man’s saying; unluckily, that other withdraws himself in the same way, and quotes me.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)