"What! All this for a song?"

--

Source : To Queen Elizabeth, on being ordered to make a gratuity of £100 to Spenser in return for some poems, in Edmund Spenser 'The Faerie Queene' (1751) 'The Life of Mr Edmund Spenser' by Thomas Birch

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

“Our current draconian laws prohibiting the use of ***** by responsible adults are doubly flawed. Not only does such prohibition violate fundamental freedoms but also. . . it undermines personal health and public safety. Regardless of your views on the civil liberties issues. . .another compelling justification for ***** law reform: that it will promote health and safety for all of us, including our nation's children.”
“The man who has the will to undergo all labor may win to any good.”
“... it has always been the depth of my belief, my faith, or my love that was the mainspring of my behavior. When once I believed in doing a thing, nothing could prevent my doing it.”
“It is better to entertain an idea than to take home to live with you for the rest of your life.”
“Why have they been telling us women lately that we have no sense of humor -- when we are always laughing? . . . and when we're not laughing, we're smiling.”
“The kind of audience I'm speaking to is a very wide range of people.”
“I'm not going to talk about Picasso. I have done my duty to those memories. I have had a great career as an artist myself, you know. I'm not here just because I've spent time with Picasso.”
“I have an ounce of Lady Gaga's full-bodied ambition.”

You may also like:

Anne Boleyn
Marquess of Pembroke
Catherine Parr
Queen consort of England
Elizabeth I
Queen of England
Francis Walsingham
Spymaster
Henry VIII of England
King of England
King James I
Former King of England
Mary, Queen of Scots
Former Queen of Scotland
Walter Raleigh
Writer
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury