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 (18031882)
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“I quote another mans saying; unluckily, that other withdraws himself in the same way, and quotes me.”
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