"[A]s the country had nearly relapsed into Anarchy again, through the Frondist revolt, only one resource remained to it, the direct rule of the King; in other words, monarchical autocracy. That is why Louis XIV's first pronouncement on attaining his majority was the famous apophthegm "L’Etat, c’est moi!" All France applauded that utterance. And indeed the observation was interpreted as announcing, not a despotism, but a deliverance. Henceforth the State was, not a minister, nor the great nobles and fair ladies of the Fronde, nor the magistrates of Parliament, nor the lords of Finance (hence the importance and the significance of the Fouquet trial). The governing power would now be in the undisputed possession of its lawful representative, the heir to the Kings of France."
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Jacques Bainville, Dictators (1937), pp. 79-80
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_of_France
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Louis XIV of France
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