Catherine the Great

2 May 1729 - 17 November 1796

Empress of Russia between 1762 and 1796.

 

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

 

Praise loudly, blame softly.

 

Power without a nation's confidence is nothing.

 

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.

 

You philosophers are lucky men. You write on paper and paper is patient. Unfortunate Empress that I am, I write on the susceptible skins of living beings.

 

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