"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then the dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in,—glittering like the morning star, full of life and splendor, and joy. Oh! what a revolution! and what a heart must I have, to contemplate without emotion that elevation and that fall! Little did I dream when she added titles of veneration to those of enthusiastic, distant, respectful love, that she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom; little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone.—That of sophisters, economists; and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), pp. 112-113
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"We made our entrance into Paris. As for honors, we received all that we could possibly imagine; but they, though very…"
"The King of Prussia is innately a bad neighbor, but the English will also always be bad neighbors to France, and the …"
"Madame d'Adhémar, here is another missive from my unknown. Have you not heard people talking again of the Comte de St…"
"It is quite certain that in seeing the people who treat us so well despite their own misfortune, we are more obliged …"
"What do you make of these threatening verses?... Pray heaven you speak truly, Madame d’Adhémar, however, these are st…"
"We had a beautiful dream and that was all. The interest of my son is the only guide I have, and whatever happiness I …"
"Courage! I have shown it for years; think you I shall lose it at the moment when my sufferings are to end?"
"No harm will come to me. The Assembly is prepared to treat us leniently."
"I have come, Sire, to complain of one of your subjects who has been so audacious as to kick me in the belly."
"In a month’s time, I shall be able to give your Majesty news of the Comtesse de Provence, for the marriage is fixed f…"