WIST

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

Catherine II (1762-1796) Russian empress [Catherine the Great]
(Attributed)

Moi, je serai autocrate: c’est mon metier. Et le bon Dieu me pardonnnera: c’est son metier.
[I shall be an autocrat: that's my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that's his.]

Catherine II (1762-1796) Russian empress [Catherine the Great]
(Attributed)

I praise loudly, I blame softly.

Catherine II (1762-1796) Russian empress [Catherine the Great]
Letter (23 Aug. 1794)

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 II (1762-1796) Russian empress [Catherine the Great]
Letter to Baron F. M. Grimm (1878)