Queen Elizabeth I of England

I do not want a husband who honours me as a queen, if he does not love me as a woman. 

A clear and innocent conscience fears nothing. 

I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too. 

Do not tell secrets to those whose faith and silence you have not already tested. 

A fool too late bewares when all the peril is past. 

I would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married. 

I shall lend credit to nothing against my people which parents would not believe against their own children. 

Fear not, we are of the nature of the lion, and cannot descend to the destruction of mice and such small beasts. 

I pray to God that I shall not live one hour after I have thought of using deception. 

Though the sex to which I belong is considered weak you will nevertheless find me a rock that bends to no wind.

Brass shines as fair to the ignorant as gold to the goldsmiths. 

I have the heart of a man, not a woman, and I am not afraid of anything. 

Those who appear the most sanctified are the worst. 

The past cannot be cured. 

I would rather go to any extreme than suffer anything that is unworthy of my reputation, or of that of my crown.