COURTS AND COURTIERS

Blessington, Marguerite
The chief requisites for a courtier are a flexible conscience and an inflexible politeness.

Bruyere, Jean de la
An old courtier, with veracity, good sense, and a faithful memory, is an inestimable treasure; he is full of transactions and maxims; in him one may find the history of the age, enriched with a great many curious circumstances which we never meet with in books; from him we may learn rules for our conduct and manners, of the more weight, because founded on facts, and illustrated by striking examples.

The court is like a palace built of marble—made up of very hard, and very polished materials.

Dryden, John
See how he sets his countenance for deceit, and promises a lie before he speaks.

Lee, Nathaniel
The court is a golden, but fatal circle, upon whose magic skirts a thousand devils sit tempting innocence, and beckon early virtue from its center.

Mallet, David
Bred in camps, trained in the gallant openness of truth that best becomes a soldier, thou art happily a stranger to the baseness and infamy of courts.

Richter, Jean Paul
With the people of courts the tongue is the artery of their withered life, the spiral spring and flag-feather of their souls.

Shakespeare, William
Poor wretches, that depend on greatness's favor, dream, as I have done, and wake and find nothing.

Talleyrand-Perigold, Alexander A.
A court is an assemblage of noble and distinguished beggars.