It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.
Moammar Gaddafi, who has called himself the ‘Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,’ should go down in history with the Emperor Bokassa and Idi Amin as a grotesque reminder of why people have the right to change their government.
For years now, Chinese parents and teachers have lamented what’s known as the ‘xiao huangdi’ – or little emperor – phenomenon, a generation of pampered and entitled children who believe they sit at the center of the social universe because that’s exactly how they’ve been treated.
I’m not sure whether Jeff Bezos is the greatest thing in the world coming along or if he may be the emperor with no clothes.
I truly am of the belief that I should be nominated and elected ‘Emperor of North America’ and given a shot at being ruler of the universe, and I haven’t had the chance to craft my campaigns for these offices yet because I’ve been very busy with Brock Lesnar.
I’m the president of the United States. I’m not the emperor of the United States.
There’s a dark underside to philanthropy. People who give a bunch of money are deferred to, even when they are wrong. The emperor cannot be shown to have no clothes.
In the new Georgia, Stalin is no longer Georgian. He’s a Russian emperor.
I drink a bucket of white tea in the morning. I read about this tea of the Emperor of China, which is supposedly the tea of eternal youth. It’s called Silver Needle. It’s unbelievably expensive, but I get it on the Web.
No emperor has the power to dictate to the heart.
No one would have doubted his ability to reign had he never been emperor.
Ethiopia is engraved on my heart. I first went in 1973 because I heard of a terrible famine. They were denying it even as we got the film out. The coverage destroyed the emperor’s credibility.
Europeans are forever the offspring of Machiavelli, trapped in a historical rollercoaster that can bring us a monarchy-toppling French Revolution and then a few years later Napoleon Bonaparte as emperor.
People have become less discriminating listeners, which is tragic, really. There’s a lot of emperor’s new clothes out there, whether they’re female or male solo acts. That bothers me. It’s hard to break through, and it’s like climbing Mount Everest if you actually do.
The ancient Greeks and Romans were comfortable with any number of deities and were quite open to allowing conquered nations to continue to worship in whatever ways they saw fit, as long as they didn’t mind having an emperor who required taxes and tributes.
King Charles, who was also the Holy Roman Emperor, lived and worked in hard bare rooms with no carpets, crowding to the fire in winter, using the window’s sunshine in summer.
Emperor Sid Caesar is gone to eternity himself now. He takes with him the gratitude of every one of us who first learned the relief of laughter from this genuinely great performer.
There’s a dark underside to philanthropy. People who give a bunch of money are deferred to, even when they are wrong. The emperor cannot be shown to have no clothes.
It’s nice when critics say ‘Emperor of the Air’ is an important book of stories.
No emperor has the power to dictate to the heart.
In the new Georgia, Stalin is no longer Georgian. He’s a Russian emperor.
So in process of four or five years the emperor called me, as divers times he had done before.
I had always been fascinated with Napoleon because he was a self-made emperor; Victor Hugo said, ‘Napoleon’s will to power,’ and it was the title of my paper. And I submitted it to my teacher, and he didn’t think I had written it. And he wanted me to explain it to him.
What is fascinating to me is the way I view everything in terms of parallels and connections. When I read about Achilles and Odysseus in Homer’s ‘Iliad,’ I can see parallels in Chinese historical romances, in the way the first emperor of the Han dynasty and his chief rival are portrayed.
Twitter is very impulsive and impermanent and you only have 140 characters. There is no greater ‘Emperor’ of Twitter than Stephen Fry.
If you want respect, you earn it in politics. You don’t get it because you are some form of bloody emperor in a toga.
I also won one from the emperor of Japan, with a prize for the arts. That’s important.
Though I am not imperial, and though Elizabeth may not deserve it, the Queen of England will easily deserve to have an emperor’s son to marry.
I always like to reveal the fact that the emperor has no clothes. And children are best at that. They teach us how to see the world in that sense. They are without artifice; they see it for what it is. I am drawn to that ruthless honesty.
My fake Japanese was smooth enough to earn me the title of ‘The Emperor of Pleasing Graciousness’ in that country.
I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone.
I have to get out once a week and speak with people or I start thinking I’m the emperor of Abyssinia.
I cannot consent that my mortal body shall be laid in a repository prepared for an Emperor or a King my republican feelings and principles forbid it the simplicity of our system of government forbids it.
I was born into a very important family in Japan. My grandfather was a descendant of the Emperor, and we were very wealthy.
I would prefer to be a citizen of an independent country rather than Emperor of an enslaved one.
The first persecution of the Church took place in the year 67, under Nero, the sixth emperor of Rome.
As I was working I noticed that the way I designed the differential gearing actually created a spare drive that sat directly below the emperor’s feet, or where they would be if he were to sit in the chariot.
No one who hired Siegfried & Roy was shocked when they brought a tiger onstage. So you shouldn’t be shocked if you book a comedian and she points out that the emperor has no clothes.
The emperor is in the Church, not above the Church.
I would prefer to be a citizen of an independent country rather than Emperor of an enslaved one.
I would rather have a nod from an American, than a snuff-box from an emperor.
A lot’s riding on ‘Dune,’ and my friends in Seattle realize what’s happening if I freak out a bit. They accept whatever I happen to be, and they tell me when I’m slipping out of Kyle. They call me the ‘God Emperor of the Universe.’
The Supreme Court of the United States is hereby commanded to try Andrew Johnson for usurpation of our Imperial authority and prerogatives, and if found guilty, behead him or send him here to black the Emperor’s boots.
I always like to reveal the fact that the emperor has no clothes. And children are best at that. They teach us how to see the world in that sense. They are without artifice; they see it for what it is. I am drawn to that ruthless honesty.
I had always been fascinated with Napoleon because he was a self-made emperor; Victor Hugo said, ‘Napoleon’s will to power,’ and it was the title of my paper. And I submitted it to my teacher, and he didn’t think I had written it. And he wanted me to explain it to him.
The emperor is in the Church, not above the Church.
I’m just as much into Emperor as I am Alice Cooper.
Name me an emperor who was ever struck by a cannonball.
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