The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

apocryphal)
J’ai failli attendre.
I almost had to wait.
Expressing impatience; attribution doubted, among others, by E. Fournier in ‘L’Esprit dans l’Histoire’ (4th
edition, 1884) ch. 48
Toutes les fois que je donne une place vacante, je fais cent mècontents et un ingrat.
Every time I create an appointment, I create a hundred malcontents and one ingrate.
In Voltaire ‘Siécle de Louis XIV’ (1753) ch. 26
Il n’y a plus de Pyrènèes.
The Pyrenees are no more.
On the accession of his grandson to the throne of Spain, 1700. Attributed by Voltaire in ‘Siécle de Louis
XIV’ (1753) ch. 26, but to the Spanish Ambassador in ‘Mercure Galant’ November 1700, p. 237
12.127 Louis XVIII 1755-1824
Rappelez-vous bien qu’il n’est aucun de vous qui n’ait dans sa giberne le bâton de marèchal du
duc de Reggio; c’est á vous á l’en fait sortir.
Speech to Saint Cyr cadets, 9 August 1819, in ‘Moniteur Universel’ 10 August 1819
L’exactitude est la politesse des rois.
Punctuality is the politeness of kings.
Attributed, in ‘Souvenirs de J. Lafitte’ (1844) bk. 1, ch. 3
12.128 Richard Lovelace 1618-58
Lucasta that bright northern star.
‘Amyntor from Beyond the Sea to Alexis’
Forbear, thou great good husband, little ant.
‘The Ant’
When Love with unconfined wings
Hovers within my gates;
And my divine Althea brings
To whisper at the grates:
When I lie tangled in her hair,
And fettered to her eye;
The Gods, that wanton in the air
Know no such liberty.
‘To Althea, From Prison’
When flowing cups run swiftly round
With no allaying Thames.
‘To Althea, From Prison’
When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
When healths and draughts go free,