Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.
King
A countryman may be as warm in kersey as a king in velvet.
A crown is no cure for the headache.Italian, German, Dutch.
A king is never powerful that hath not power on the sea.Spanish.
A king promises but observes only what he pleases.
A king’s favor is no inheritance.
A king should have neither friends nor relations, needing only slaves.Sicandar of India.
A king without a good counsellor is like a wayfaring man who is blind.
A man ought to be born a king or a fool.Latin.
A noble prince or king never has a coin to bless himself.French.
Accurst the king that casts his purple o’er his vices.Bulwer.
Among the blind a one-eyed man is king.Latin.
An illiterate king is a crowned ass.
As the king, so are his people.Spanish.
Every law is broken to become a king.
Every one is a king in his own house.Portuguese.
General calamities imply in kings general imbecility.
He is half a king who has the king’s good acres.
He that is hated o’ his subjects canna be a king.
He who eats the king’s cow lean, pays for it fat.French, Spanish.
Ill kings make many good laws.
It befits the king to be liberal for he is sure of never falling into poverty.Portuguese.
King Henry robbed the church and died poor.
Kings and bears oft worry their keepers.
Kings are out o’ play.
Kings are like stars,—they rise and set; they have
The worship of the world, but no repose.Shelley.
Kings’ entreaties are commands.Dutch.
Kings hae lange ears.
Kings have long arms and many eyes and ears.Italian.
Kings love the treason but not the traitor.
Kings ought to be environed with good will instead of guards.Bias.
Kings ought to be kings in all things.Adrian.
Kings ought to shun the company of the vicious for the evil they commit in his company is accounted his.Plato.
Neck or nothing, for the king loves no cripple.
Neither a log nor a stork, good Jupiter.(Fable of the frogs praying for a king.)
Nice customs courtesy to great kings.Shakespeare.
No king was ever a traitor or pope excommunicated.Spanish.
Robbers take to rocks and precipices for security; for a king there is no such fortress as honor and humanity.Aratus.
“Sail!” quoth the king; “Hold!” saith the wind.
The emperor of Germany is the king of kings; the king of Spain king of men; the king of France king of asses; the king of England king of devils.French.
The greatest king must at last go to bed with a shovel.
The king’s leavings are better than my Lord’s bounty.Don Quixote.
The king cannot always rule as he wishes.
The king goes as far as he can, not so far as he would.Spanish.
The king likes the treachery but not the traitor.Spanish.
The king may bestow offices but cannot bestow wit to manage them.
The king may give the honor but thou art to make thyself honorable.German.
The king of France with twenty thousand men,
Marched up the hill and then marched down again.R. Tarleton.
The king of good fellows is appointed for the queen of beggars.
The king (queen) of the bees has no sting.Portuguese.
The king’s chaff is better than other folks’ corn.German.
The king’s cheese goes half way in parings.
The king’s favor is no inheritance.
The king’s friend is he who tells him the truth.
The last reason of kings.(Motto engraved on a French cannon.)
The subjects’ love is the king’s best guard.
The surest guard of a king is not armies or treasures but friends.Petrarch.
The sword of kings
Is the last reason of all things.Butler.
The word of a king ought to be as binding as the oath of a subject.Italian.
The wrath of kings is always dreadful.
There’s such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but peep to what it would.Shakespeare.
’Tis fate that flings the dice, and as she flings,
Of kings makes peasants and of peasants kings.
To such a king, such an ambassador.(Remark of the ambassador of Louis XIII. of France to the king of Spain.)
Under which king, Bezonian? speak, or die.Shakespeare.
When kings lose their temper, it is their people who pay for it.
Whosoever is king, thou’lt be his man.
Would you have me serve you, good king, give me the means of living.Portuguese.