COURT AND COURTIER

Related Subjects: Fop, Kings, Nobility, Prince, Queen

1. To laugh, to lie, to flatter to the face,
   Four ways in court to win men's grace.—ROGER ASCHAM, The Schoolmaster
   

2. Young courtiers be beggars in their age.—ALEXANDER BARCLAY, Egloges
   

3. Heads bow, knees bend, eyes watch around a throne,
   And hands obey—our hearts are still our own.—BYRON, Don Juan
   

4. The man that has no friend at court,
   Must make the laws confine his sport;
   But he that has, by dint of flaws,
   May make his sport confine the laws.—THOMAS CHATTERTON, The Revenge
   

5. Falsehood and dissimulation are certainly to be found at courts; but where are they not to be found Cottages have them, as well as courts, only with worse manners.—LORD CHESTERFIELD, Letters
   

6. Great courts are the seats of true good-breeding.—LORD CHESTERFIELD, Letters
   

7. If you think we are worked by strings,
   Like a Japanese marionette,
   You don't understand these things:
   It is simply Court etiquette.—W. S. GILBERT, The Mikado
   

8. Who has seen the court has seen the world.—LA BRUYERE, Les Caracteres
   

9. The court is like a palace built of marble—made up of very hard, and very polished marble.—LA BRUYERE, Les Caracteres
   

10. Court-virtues bear, like gems, the highest rate,
    Born where Heaven's influence scarce can penetrate.—POPE, Moral Essays
    

11. Sir, I have lived a courtier all my days,
    And studied men, their manners, and their ways;
    And have observed this useful maxim still,
    To let my betters always have their will.—POPE, January and May
    

12. A nod from a lord is a breakfast for a fool.—Proverb
    

13. Go, tell the court it glows,
    And shines like painted wood;
    Go, tell the church it shews
    What's good, but does no good.
    If court and church reply,
    Give court and church the lie.—SIR WALTER RALEIGH
    

14. This is the English, not the Turkish court;
    Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds,
    But Harry Harry.—SHAKESPEARE, Henry IV
    

15. To dance attendance on their lordships' pleasures.—SHAKESPEARE, Henry VIII
    

16. The caterpillars of the commonwealth,
    Which I have sworn to weed and pluck away.—SHAKESPEARE, Richard II
    

17. Whoso betakes him to a prince's court,
    Becomes his slave, albeit of free birth.—SOPHOCLES

18. The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance, and never to keep his word.—SWIFT, Thoughts on Various Subjects
    

19. A court is an assemblage of noble and distinguished beggars.—TALLEYRAND
    

20. O, happy they that never saw the court,
    Nor ever knew great men but by report.—JOHN WEBSTER, The White Devil