Let these king quotes guide you into making more informed and better decisions for yourself and the people around you!
When we think about kings, we imagine someone powerful and intimidating ruling over a kingdom. But, that is not the only thing that defines what a king is. He is also a steward—someone who protects the people and becomes the leader of a nation.
Whether or not a king is a great leader depends on how he treats his people. Kings face difficult decisions that will affect the people he rules over. And, through that, we get a better understanding of how difficult it is to lead.
It requires a lot of hard work, dedication, and the ability to make tough decisions and face criticism head-on. Kings face these difficulties daily, and it is only through a great mindset and foresight that they will be able to make just choices.
So, if you are the kind of person who admires people who can lead well and with great poise, then this list of king quotes will be perfect for you!
Read on and find out how vital kings are to society and the world.
Start here.
And don’t forget to check out these queen quotes and powerful quotes.
Best King Quotes
1. “For surely a king is first a man. And so it must follow that a king does as all men do—the best he can.” – Cameron Dokey
2. “Kings are the slaves of history.” – Leo Tolstoy
3. “In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” – Desiderius Erasmus
4. “Kings ought to differ from their subjects, not in kind, but in perfection.” – Aristotle
5. “Whoever controls the king, controls the kingdom.” – Holly Black
6. “Kings need not raise their voices to be heard.” – V.E. Schwab
7. “Too many kings can ruin an army.” – Homer
8. “All kings are foes of all the men they rule.” – Hortense Flexner
9. “He is a king who fears nothing. He is a king who desires nothing!” – Seneca The Younger
10. “A king is a king, not because he is rich and powerful, not because he is a successful politician, not because he belongs to a particular creed or a national group. He is king because he is born.” – Jacques Monet
Famous King Quotes
11. “No kingdom can endure two kings.” – Agesilaus
12. “The king’s name is a tower of strength. Which they upon the adverse party want.” – William Shakespeare
13. “What are kings, when regiment is gone, but perfect shadows in a sunshine day?” – Christopher Marlowe
14. “Kings are not born. They are made by universal hallucination.” – George Bernard Shaw
15. “I am, indeed, a king because I know how to rule myself.” – Pietro Aretino
16. “Magistrates rule by an established rotation. Kings reign for life.” – Aristotle
17. ” Kings are like stars. They rise and set, they have the worship of the world, but no repose.” – Percy Bysshe Shelley
18. “There can be no failure to a man who has not lost his courage, his character, his self-respect, or his self-confidence. He is still a king.” – Orison Swett Marden
19. “Every man is a king so long as he has someone to look down on.” – Sinclair Lewis
20. “A king may be a tool, a thing of straw, but if he serves to frighten our enemies and secure our property, it is well enough. A scarecrow is a thing of straw, but it protects the corn.” – Alexander Pope
Also read: Famous Quotes, Positive Quotes
King Quotes That Demonstrate Strength and Bravery
21. “The king’s name is a tower of strength—strong, tall, unassailable.” – William Shakespeare
22. “History has remembered the kings and warriors because they destroyed art has remembered the people because they created.” – William Morris
23. “Once a king, it was impossible, without risk of life, to sink to a private station.” – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
24. “It is the king’s office to protect and settle the true interpretation of the law of God within his dominions.” – James I
Also read: Courage Quotes
Short King Quotes to Ponder On
25. “A crown it is, that seldom kings enjoy.” – William Shakespeare
26. “A king without power is an absurdity.” – James Monroe
27. “Be royal in your own fashion. Act like a king to be treated.” – Robert Greene
28. “All kings are mostly rapscallions.” – Mark Twain
29. “By justice, a king gives a country stability.” – Proverbs 29:4
30. “The king did what all wise husbands do. He did as he was told.” – Toby Forward
31. “Kings fight for empires, madmen for applause.” – John Dryden
32. “A king is a living law.” – Claudius
33. “An unlearned king is but a crowned ass.” – Henry I
34. “This magistrate is not the king. The people are the king.” – Gouverneur Morris
35. “Every king must have a fool or risk becoming the fool himself.” – W.H. Mitchell
36. “The king reigns but does not govern.” – Louis Adolphe Thiers
37. “Great kings began as great boys.” – Temitope Ibrahim
38. “Kings may love treason, but the traitor hate.” – Thomas Dekker
King Quotes That Emphasize Man’s Nature
39. “Poor man wanna be rich. A rich man wants to be king. And a king ain’t satisfied ‘till he rules everything.” – Bruce Springsteen
40. “A man’s a man, but when you see a king, you see the work of many thousand men.” – George Eliot
41. “A king is a thing men have made for their own sakes, for quietness sake. Just as in a family, one man is appointed to buy the meat.” – John Selden
42. “No race of kings has ever presented above one man of common sense in 20 generations.” – Thomas Jefferson
43. “A king is a mortal god on earth, unto whom the living God hath lent his own name as a great honor; but withal told him, he should die like a man, lest he should be proud, and flatter himself that God hath with his name imparted unto him his nature also.” – John Locke
King Quotes for Those Who Want to Be Good Leaders
44. “Kindness and faithfulness keep a king safe. Through kindness, his throne is made secure.” – Solomon
45. “It is better to be without a king than to have a bad one.” – Chanakya
46. “He that can work is born to be king of something.” – Thomas Carlyle
47. “Because a man plays a king superbly well does not mean that he would make a good king.” – Louis L’Amour
48. “There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.” – Hellen Keller
49. “He who reflects attentively upon the duties of a king trembles at the sight of a crown.” – De Levis
50. “Kings govern by popular assemblies only when they cannot do without them.” – Charles James Fox
51. “If the king is pious, the subjects become so, but if the king is vicious, the subjects become the same. If he is indifferent to both virtue and vice, then they too bear the same character. In short, as is the king, so are his subjects.” – Chanakya
King Quotes to Make You Wise and Clever
52. “You have to beat the king to be the king. No one is going to hand you a gold medal.” – Donovan Bailey
53. “Wise kings generally have wise counselors, and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.” – Diogenes
54. “The enemies cannot destroy the king who has at his service the respect and friendship of the wise men who can find fault, disagree, and correct him.” – Thiruvalluvar
55. “Kings also sleep. But the clever ones, with one eye open, just like dolphins and whales.” – Mehmet Murat İldan
56. “Kings are as strong as so many Hercules’s; but then, as to their wisdom, or their goodness, there is not much to say.” – Jeremy Bentham
King Quotes That Show a Great Ruler’s Characteristics
57. “Kings in this world should imitate God. Their mercy should be above their works.” – William Penn
58. “A king that would not feel his crown too heavy for him must wear it every day, but if he thinks it too light, he knows not of what metal it is made.” – John Locke
59. “To be a king and wear a crown is a thing more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasant to them that bear it.” – Elizabeth I
60. “My first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man, not to democracy, or blood. It’s to a king and a kingdom.” – Derek Webb
61. “An ordinary idle king on a constitutional throne will leave no mark on his time: he will do little good and as little harm.” – Walter Bagehot
62. “Kings have to deal with their neighbors, their wives, their children, their prelates or clergy, their nobles, their second-nobles or gentlemen, their merchants, their commons, and their men of war; and from all these arise dangers, if care and circumspection be not used.” – Francis Bacon
63. “Kings are right to fear the blotting out of the sun. If you stake your political legitimacy on the divine right on the idea that your dominion was written, by God, into the very laws of nature. You have a big problem when the natural order begins to unwind, right before your subjects’ eyes, in the most dramatic way possible.” – Ross Andersen
More King Quotes That You Must Read Right Now
64. “There’s a fine line between gossip and history when one is talking about kings.” – Michelle Cooper
65. “Kings are never without flatterers to seduce them, ambition to deprive them, and desires to corrupt them.” – Plato
66. “Time’s glory is to command contending kings. To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light.” – William Shakespeare
67. “Little by little, the old world crumbled, and not once did the king imagine that some of the pieces might fall on him.” – Jennifer Donnelly
68. “He played the king as if afraid someone else would play the ace.” – John Mason Brown
69. “Every citizen is king under a citizen king.” – Favart
70. “King is a title which translated into several languages, signifies a magistrate with as many different degrees of power as there are kingdoms in the world, and he can have no power but what is given him by law; yea, even the supreme or legislative power is bound by the rules of equity, to govern by laws enacted, and published in due form; for what is not legal is arbitrary.” – John Arbuthnot
Did This List of King Quotes Show You the Ideal Personality of a Good Leader?
Kings are some of the most influential people in the world, both literally and figuratively. They are people who show no fear in dealing with adversity and are brave when facing challenges. All kings dare to face their foes head-on without cowardice.
This title is something a lot of people crave. But, we must realize and understand the saying, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Being a king is not easy; it’s messy and comes with a lot of work, responsibilities, and expectations.
While being a king, in itself, is difficult, being a good and just king and ruler is even more challenging. You’ll have to face many more tough choices and decisions aside from the hard work, commitment, and sacrifice you’re expected to do and give. You’ll have to constantly choose the good and benefit of others over yours to govern, protect, and lead your people well.
With that, we hope this list was able to serve as an eye-opener for you. Let the responsibilities of a king weigh on your mind the next time you’re making a decision. After all, your choices affect your life and the life of your loved ones, too.
