That in the captains but a choleric word Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.

There may be as much nobility in being last as in being first, because the two positions are equally necessary in the world, the one to complement the other.

A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.

The good Lord sees your heart, not the braid on your jacket, before Him we are all in our birthday suits, generals and common men alike.

When fortune surprises us by giving us an important position, without having led us to it by degrees, or without our being elevated to it by our hopes, it is almost impossible for us to maintain ourselves suitably in it, and appear worthy of possessing it.

There is merit without rank, but there is no rank without some merit.

No man is safe above but he that will gladly be beneath.

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.

It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.

The sparrow is sorry for the peacock at the burden of its tail.

A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

It is a very curious fact that, with all our boasted free and equal superiority over the communities of the Old World, our people [Americans] have the most enormous appetite for Old World titles of distinction.

A cat may look on a king.

The man who occupies the first place seldom plays the principal part.

When everyone is somebody, Then no one's anybody.

The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse.

Detestation of the high is the involuntary homage of the low.

The defeats and victories of the fellows at the top aren't always defeats and victories for the fellows at the bottom.

To call a king Prince is pleasing, because it diminishes his rank.

Bottom is bottom, even if it is turned upside down.