Catherine the Great

"I may be kindly, I am ordinarily gentle, but in my line of business I am obliged to will terribly what I will at all."

"I beg you take courage the brave soul can mend even disaster."

"I shall be an autocrat, that's my trade and the good Lord will forgive me, that's his."

"A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache."

"In politics a capable ruler must be guided by circumstances, conjectures and conjunctions."

"Power without a nation's confidence is nothing."