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

— Catherine the Great

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

— Catherine the Great

First health then wealth then pleasure and do not owe anything to anybody.

— Catherine the Great

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

— 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.

— Catherine the Great

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

— Catherine the Great

I praise loudly. I blame softly.

— Catherine the Great

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

— Catherine the Great

I shall be an autocrat: that's my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that's his.

— Catherine the Great

One cannot always know what children are thinking. Children are hard to understand, especially when careful training has accustomed them to obedience, and experience has made them cautious in their conversation with their teachers. Will you not draw from this the fine maxim that one should not scold children too much, but should make them trustful, so that they will not conceal their stupidities from us?

— Catherine the Great