Duke Ellington Quotes

Kings need the company of the intelligent far more than the intelligent need the company of kings.

Upper class to me means you are either born into wealth or you're Royalty.

Commerce and politics do not go with royalty, full stop.

Fame confers a rank above that of gentleman and of kings. As soon as she issues her patent of nobility, it matters not a straw whether the recipient be the son of a Bourbon or of a tallow-chandler.

I'll be damned for never a king's son in Christendom.

The king can drink the best of wine -So can I;And has enough when he would dine -So have I;And can not order rain or shine -Nor can I.Then where's the difference - let me see -Betwixt my lord the king and me?

There are certain fixed rules that one observes for one's own comfort. For instance, never be flippantly rude to any inoffensive grey-bearded stranger that you may meet in pine forests or hotel smoking-rooms on the Continent. It always turns out to be the King of Sweden.

People are fascinated by the rich: Shakespeare wrote plays about kings, not beggars.

There have been fewer friends on earth than kings.

To-day kings, to-marrow beggars, it is only when they are themselves that they are nothing.

I don't curtsy to Frank Sinatra and I'm not going to curtsy to a fucking king.

From this window we see the palace where the King is misled by perfidious counsels. Terror and fear have often issued from yon palace: let them return to-day in the name of the law, and let all those who inhabit that palace know that the King is alone inviolable, that the law will strike down the guilty without respect of persons, and that there is not a guilty head which can escape its sword.

The word “must” may not be used to princes.

There is only one class in the state, the Volk, (the people), and the king belongs to this class as well as the peasant

The monarchy is a labor-intensive industry.

The Inca honored the men of the blood royal by permitting them to bore their ears where women do today, but with larger holes … and this was the sign of nobility and royal caste ...

Only great noblemen and valiant warriors are given license to build a home with a second story; for disobeying this law the penalty is death.

What the heck is a king? I'm a cog in the wheel.

Don't call me 'sir; 'King Jew' will do fine.

I know places you better speak low if you've been to college. Men will come across the room and cold-deck you if you hold your glass wrong.

What I should do is go over to the surgical suites and get my foot extricated from my mouth.

Who asks a king for a penny?

It is something, I thought, when a king can put a courtesan to the blush.

Common men should esteem learning as silver, noble men prize it as gold, and princes as jewels.

Aristocracy is a relative thing. And there are plenty of out-of-the-way places where the son of an upholsterer is the arbiter of fashion and reigns over a court like any young Prince of Wales.