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.

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.

Power without a nation's confidence is nothing.

I do not love strife, because I have always found that in the end each remains of the same opinion.

I like to praise and reward in a loud voice and to scold in a whisper.

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

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.