In our own misfortunes how much comfort has our affection for one another afforded us! And, in times of happiness, we have enjoyed that doubly from being able to share it with a friend; and where can one find friends more tender and more united than in one's own family?

Marie Antoinette

I was a queen, and you took away my crown; a wife, and you killed my husband; a mother, and you deprived me of my children. My blood alone remains: take it, but do not make me suffer long.

Marie Antoinette

queens mother children

If the people have no bread, let them eat cake.

Marie Antoinette

cake bread people

it is the nature of human beings, and especially of the mediocre ones, to wish to change everything. They desire it all the more because they know popularity will accrue rather to those who disturb than to those who maintain order.

Marie Antoinette

change wish order

There is nothing new except what has been forgotten.

Marie Antoinette

creativity historical creative

Courage! I have shown it for years; think you I shall lose it at the moment when my sufferings are to end?

Marie Antoinette

courage years thinking

I wasn’t raised, I was built.

Marie Antoinette

built raised

Marie Antoinette. Her last words were,"Pardon me sir. I did not mean to do it,"to a man whose foot she stepped on before she was executed by the guillotine

Marie Antoinette

feet men mean

We had a beautiful dream and that was all. The interest of my son is the only guide I have, and whatever happiness I could achieve by being free of this place I cannot consent to separate my self from him. I could not have any pleasure in the world if I abandoned my children. I do not even have any regrets.

Marie Antoinette

beautiful-dreams dream beautiful

I had friends. The idea of being forever separated from them and from all their troubles is one of the greatest sorrows that I suffer in dying. Let them at least know that to my latest moment I thought of them.

Marie Antoinette

suffering forever ideas

Letting everyone down would be my greatest unhappiness.

Marie Antoinette

unhappiness would-be

And I will make thee beds of roses, And a thousand fragrant posies.

Marie Antoinette

bed-of-roses flower love

I am terrified of being bored.

Marie Antoinette

being-bored terrified bored

Qu'ils mangent de la brioche. Let them eat cake. On being told that her people had no bread. Attributed to Marie-Antoinette, but remark is much older. Rousseau refers in his Confessions, 1740, to a similar remark, as a well-known saying. Others attribute the remark to the wife of Louis XIV.

Marie Antoinette

cake wife people

Tribulation first makes one realize what one is.

Marie Antoinette

realizing trouble firsts

Courage? The moment when my troubles are going to end is not the moment when my courage is going to fail me.

Marie Antoinette

failing moments trouble

The ministers and the Jacobins are making the king declare war tomorrow on Austria. The ministers are hoping that this move will frighten the Austrians and that within three weeks we will be negotiating (God forbid that this should happen). May we at last be avenged for all the outrages we have suffered from this country!

Marie Antoinette

kings war country

one's enjoyment is doubled when one can share it with a friend - and where can one find a more affectionate, a more intimate friend than in one's own family?

Marie Antoinette

intimate family share

I have just been condemned, not to a shameful death, which can only apply to felons, but rather to finding your brother again...I seek forgiveness for all whom I know for every harm I may have unwittingly caused them...Adieu, good, gentle sister...I embrace you with all my heart as well as the poor, dear children.

Marie Antoinette

brother heart children

No one understands my ills, nor the terror that fills my breast, who does not know the heart of a mother.

Marie Antoinette

mother doe heart

No, do not love me, it is better to give me death!

Marie Antoinette

give-me giving