Marie Antoinette was the Queen of France who was popular for her quote “Let them eat cake.”
According to historical evidence, Marie Antoinette was born in Vienna and was the youngest child. She was born as an Archduchess of Austria.
In May 1770, Marie Antoinette was engaged to Louis-Auguste, the heir apparent to the French throne. She became the Queen of France in 1774 when her husband inherited the throne from Louis XVI.
Marie Antoinette was well-liked by everybody at the start of her life as a princess at the French court. She was renowned for her beauty and charity as a princess. Marie Antoinette cared about the Crown and her people. This was evident in some of the letters she sent to her relatives in Vienna, Austria.
Marie Antoinette's standing in the French court increased after she had kids. As time went on, discontent against the Queen of France and the Crown grew. According to history, she was eventually dubbed 'Madame Deficit'. This fueled the already burning opposition to the French Crown, and they were out for blood. This eventually led to the French Revolution.
The most well-known quotation ascribed to Marie Antoinette is "Let them eat cake.". According to history, the queen said this after learning that her hungry people were peasants.
However, there is no evidence of the fact that the Queen said, “Let them eat cake.” Comparable stories have been discovered in different regions of the globe. For example, a noblewoman in 16th-century German story questions why the starving poor didn't just eat Krosem (a sweet bread).
Famous Marie Antoinette Quotes
There are various famous quotes besides Antoinette's controversial “Let them eat cake,” and the following are some of those from the Queen.
"Adieu, dear heart, nothing but death can make me cease to love you."
"Our lives are just spectacles. We are like dolls, in a sense, to be observed and played with – often with cruel and deceitful intentions – in an unreal world."
"The king and the dauphin both like to see me on horseback. I only say this because all the world perceives it, and especially while we were absent from Versailles, they were delighted to see me in my riding habit."
"Farewell, my children, forever. I go to your Father."
"Perhaps---the GREAT LOVES---come with---TEARS."
"I pity my brother Ferdinand, knowing by my own feelings how sad a thing it is to live apart from one’s family."
"It is the nature of human beings, and especially of the mediocre ones, to wish to change everything. They desire it all the more because they know popularity will accrue rather to those who disturb than to those who maintain order."
"No, do not love me, it is better to give me death!"
"It is true I am rather taken up with dress; but as to feathers, everyone wears them, and it would seem extraordinary if I did not."
"I have begun the 'History of England' by Mr. Hume. It seems to me very interesting, though it is necessary to recollect that it is a Protestant who has written it."
"My tastes are not those of the king who has none, except for hunting and mechanic’s labor."
"I had friends. The idea of being forever separated from them and from all their troubles is one of the greatest sorrows that I suffer in dying. Let them at least know that to my latest moment I thought of them."
"I am terrified of being bored."
"You have doubtless heard, my dear mother, the misfortune of Madame de Chartres, whose child is born dead. But I would rather have even that, terrible as it is, then be as I am without hope of any children."
"No one understands my ills, nor the terror that fills my breast, who does not know the heart of a mother."
Marie Antoinette Quotes on Revolution
The following Marie Antoinette quotes are in the context of the French Revolution.
(Read some amazing quotes by the Queen of France, taken from both her writing and personal life during the French revolution.)
"If the people have no bread, let them eat cake."
"The King of Prussia is innately a bad neighbor, but the English will also always be bad neighbors to France, and the sea has never prevented them from doing her great mischief."
"No harm will come to me. The Assembly is prepared to treat us leniently."
"I have come, Sire, to complain of one of your subjects who has been so audacious as to kick me in the belly."
"I did not do it on purpose."
"We made our entrance into Paris. As for honors, we received all that we could possibly imagine; but they, though very well in their way, were not what touched me most.
What was really affecting was the tenderness and earnestness of the poor people, who, in spite of the taxes with which they are overwhelmed, were transported with joy at seeing us."
"In a month’s time, I shall be able to give your Majesty news of the Comtesse de Provence, for the marriage is fixed for May 14th; they had prepared many fetes for this marriage, but now they are economising in them for want of money."
"I was a queen, and you took away my crown; a wife, and you killed my husband; a mother, and you deprived me of my children. My blood alone remains: take it, but do not make me suffer long."
"I should be very sorry if the Germans disapproved of me."
"But how will I eat cake if my head is over there, and my hands are over here?"
"You can be assured that I need no one’s guidance in anything concerning propriety."
"I trust we shall never be reduced to the painful extremity of seeking the aid of Mirabeau."
"It is an amazing feature in the French character that they will let themselves be led away so easily by bad counsels and yet return again so quickly. It is certain that as these people have, out of their misery, treated us so well, we are the more bound to work for their happiness."
"They are going to force us to go to Paris, the King and me, preceded by the heads of our bodyguards on pikes."
Best Marie Antoinette Quotes
The following quotes by the French Queen Marie Antoinette will definitely inspire you to be successful in life.
"I feel more and more, every day of my life, how much my dear mamma has done for my establishment. I was the youngest of all her daughters, and she has treated me as if I were the eldest so that my whole soul is filled with the most tender gratitude."
"Courage! I have shown it for years; think you I shall lose it at the moment when my sufferings are to end?"
"It is in misfortune that you realize your true nature."
"In times of crisis, it is of utmost importance to keep one's head."
"My tastes are not the same as the King's, who is only interested in hunting and his metal-working."
"Your Majesty may rest assured about my conduct towards the Comtesse de Provence; I will certainly try and gain her friendship and confidence, without going too far."
"I have seen all, I have heard all, I have forgotten all."
"The king is full of kindnesses toward me, and I love him tenderly. But it is pitiable to see his weakness for Madame du Barri, who is the silliest and most impertinent creature that it is possible to conceive."
"I wasn’t raised; I was built."
"And if they hate then let them hate and watch the money pile up."
"It is an amazing feature in the French character that they will let themselves be led away so easily by bad counsels and yet return again so quickly. It is certain that as these people have, out of their misery, treated us so well, we are the more bound to work for their happiness."
"My mother sees things but from the distance; she does not weigh them in regard to my position, and she judges me too harshly. But she is my mother, who loves me dearly; and when she speaks, I can only bow my head."
"And I will make thee beds of roses, And a thousand fragrant posies."
Thought-Provoking Marie Antoinette Quotes
Marie Antoinette loved her people with all her dear heart, and these quotes by her are definitely inspiring.
(Learn some interesting quotes by Marie Antoinette here at Kidadl.)
"Courage? The moment when my troubles are going to end is not the moment when my courage is going to fail me."
"It would be doing me great injustice to think that I have any feeling of indifference to my country; I have more reason than anyone to feel, every day of my life, the value of the blood which flows in my veins, and it is only from prudence that at times I abstain from showing how proud I am of it."
"Dreams weigh nothing."
"I am calm, as people are whose consciences are clear."
"It lies in humanity’s infinite capacity for self-deception where some perceived (and in this case long-desired) advantage is at stake."
"There is nothing new except what has been forgotten."
"We had a beautiful dream and that was all. The interest of my son is the only guide I have, and whatever happiness I could achieve by being free of this place I cannot consent to separate my self from him.
I could not have any pleasure in the world if I abandoned my children. I do not even have any regrets."
"I have just been condemned, not to a shameful death, which can only apply to felons, but rather to finding your brother again…I seek forgiveness for all whom I know for every harm I may have unwittingly caused them…Adieu, good, gentle sister…I embrace you with all my heart as well as the poor, dear children."
"When everyone else is losing their heads, it is important to keep yours."
"The ministers and the Jacobins are making the king declare war tomorrow on Austria. The ministers are hoping that this move will frighten the Austrians and that within three weeks we will be negotiating (God forbid that this should happen). May we, at last, be avenged for all the outrages we have suffered from this country!"
"Tribulation first makes one realize what one is."
"One’s enjoyment is doubled when one can share it with a friend – and where can one find a more affectionate, a more intimate friend than in one’s own family?"
"My dear mamma is quite right when she says that we must lay down principles and not depart from them. The king will not have the same weaknesses as his grandfather. I hope that he will have no favorites, but I am afraid that he is too mild and too easy."
"Letting everyone down would be my greatest unhappiness."
