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Courtiers don't take wagers against the king's skill. There is the deadly danger of winning. -- Isaac Asimov
The best servants of the people, like the best valets, must whisper unpleasant truths in the master's ear. It is the court fool, not the foolish courtier, whom the king can least afford to lose. -- Walter Lippmann
Every spendthrift passion has its attendant courtiers. -- Doris Lessing
Art editors and critics - people like me - have become a courtier class. -- Dave Hickey
To be over much facetious is the accomplishment of courtiers and blemish of the wise. -- Saadi
The success of great scholars and thinkers is commonly a courtier-like success, not kingly, not manly. -- Henry David Thoreau
I find virtue to be found amongst the farmers of the country alone, not about courts, where courtiers dwell. -- Andrew Jackson
Leaders of the Church have often been Narcissus, flattered and sickeningly excited by their courtiers. The court is the leprosy of the papacy. -- Pope Francis
You can smile when your heart is breaking because you are a woman, and a courtier, and a Howard. That's three reasons for being the most deceitful creature on God's earth. -- Philippa Gregory
The Westerly Wind asserting his sway from the south-west quarter is often like a monarch gone mad, driving forth with wild imprecations the most faithful of his courtiers to shipwreck, disaster, and death. -- Joseph Conrad
Dogs live with man as courtiers 'round a monarch, steeped in the flattery of his notice ... to push their favor in this world of pickings and caresses is, perhaps, the business of their lives. -- Robert Louis Stevenson
When mighty roast beef was the Englishman's food It ennobled our hearts and enriched our blood-- Our soldiers were brave and our courtiers were good. Oh! the roast beef of England. And Old England's roast beef. -- Henry Fielding
To serve Mary and to be her courtier is the greatest honor we can possibly possess; for to serve the Queen of Heaven is already to reign there; and to live under her command is more than to govern. -- John of Damascus
In the humanist ideal, the mainstream is where interesting debate, the generating of new ideas and creativity take place. In rational society this mainstream is considered uncontrollable and is therefore made marginal. The centre ground is occupied instead by structures and courtiers. -- John Ralston Saul
Perhaps one of the only positive pieces of advice that I was ever given was that supplied by an old courtier who observed: Only two rules really count. Never miss an opportunity to relieve yourself; never miss a chance to sit down and rest your feet. -- King Edward VIII
The room was quiet, the others flicking glances at me. I ignored them. After years in Sounis's palaces being eyed with disgust by my uncle and my own father and courtier after courtier, I assure you I am unrivaled at pretending not to notice other people's glances. -- Megan Whalen Turner
I would not be a rose upon the wall A queen might stop at, near the palace-door, To say to a courtier, "Pluck that rose for me, It's prettier than the rest." O Romney Leigh! I'd rather far be trodden by his foot, Than lie in a great queen's bosom. -- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Here and there in the ancient literature we encounter legends of wise and mysterious games that were conceived and played by scholars, monks, or the courtiers of cultured princes. These might take the form of chess games in which the pieces and squares had secret meanings in addition to their usual functions. -- Hermann Hesse
And why does England thus persecute the votaries of her science? Why does she depress them to the level of her hewers of wood and her drawers of water? Is it because science flatters no courtier, mingles in no political strife? ... Can we behold unmoved the science of England, the vital principle of her arts, struggling for existence, the meek and unarmed victim of political strife? -- David Brewster
To the courtiers flushed with wine, life was pleasure, and pleasure life. -- Eiji Yoshikawa
The man who bows before the ruler, shows his behind to the courtiers -- Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
The politics of courtiers resemble their shadows; they cringe and turn with the sun of the day. -- Jean Antoine Petit-Senn
Peoples, be peoples and others will respect you. Be courtiers and others will scorn you and it will be well deserved. -- Louis-Joseph Papineau
...many of the officials, courtiers, and priests, representing the upper class of Egyptian society but not the royalty, looked strikingly like modern Europeans, especially long-headed ones -- Carleton S. Coon
The wicked can have only accomplices, the voluptuous have companions in debauchery, self-seekers have associates, the politic assemble the factions, the typical idler has connections, princes have courtiers. Only the virtuous have friends. -- Voltaire

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