In the pulpit, hypocrites have been worshiped; upon the stage they have been held up to derision and execration.

Most kings and priests have been despotic, and all religions have been riddled with superstition.

They are kings and priests unto God. They wear crowns that flash in the everlasting light. They wear robes that are spotlessly white. They wave victorious palms. They sing anthems of such exceeding sweetness as no earthly choirs ever approach. They stand before the throne. They fly on ministries of love. They muse on the top of Mount Zion. They meditate on the banks of the river of life. They are rapturous with ecstasies of love. God wipes away all tears from their eyes.

I ask you, Ned, what good is it to wear a crown? The gods mock the prayers of kings and cowherds alike.

Kings are the slaves of history.

Crowns do queer things to the heads beneath them.

A crown is a pitiless master, harsher than the staff of a pig-keeper; while a staff bears up, a crown weighs down, beyond the strength of any man to wear it lightly.

Kings turn men into coins to which they assign what value they like, and which others are obliged to accept at the official rate, and not at their real worth

And his hands would plait the priest's entrails, For want of a rope, to strangle kings.

A king is sometimes obliged to commit crimes; but they are the crimes of his position.

This is why we may say that those who parade piety as a purpose and an aim mostly turn into hypocrites

The kingliest kings are crowned with thorn.

In all ages the people have honored those who dishonored them. They have worshiped their destroyers; they have canonized the most gigantic liars, and buried the great thieves in marble and gold. Under the loftiest monuments sleeps the dust of murder.

Most Young Kings Get Their Heads Cut Off