The Queen's Fortune

Mediocrity is never a desirable destination....At least, not when practice might transform mediocrity to competence, or even skill.' ~ Napoleon Bonapart

A lady need never apologize. ~ Joseph de Bonaparte (Brother of Napoleon)

The sea is forever, it existed long before I did. It shall outlast me. In a world where absolutely nothing is certain, at least that much is true.

Fortune favors the bold. One doesn't win glory by hiding behind the lines.

Frivolity is destructive, and complacency is corrosive

Ambition is never content, even at the summit of greatness.

It (is) a precious gift, and rare, to hear birds warbling all year long. ~Desiree Clary Bernadottev(Queen Desideria)

I learned this lesson too late; what a shame, how late in life we realize that we simply ought not to have cared! That all along, it turns out, we have been free, endowed with the power to tell our own tales. To fulfill our own fortunes.

A crown is both a great gift and an onerous burden.

Winning is all for nothing if one does not take advantage of success.

Love is in no way essential to a successful marriage

Though so much of history has been written by and for men, I feel most passionately that women carry much of the heart and soul of so many of these great historical moments, and that their lives provide some of the most captivating and inspiring material for storytelling.

learned this lesson too late; what a shame, how late in life we realize that we simply ought not to have cared! That all along, it turns out, we have been free, endowed with the power to tell our own tales. To fulfill our own fortunes.

Everything is just as it was before—we have a king and we are once more a nation of superstitions and subjugation. The only thing that is different is that we have two million fewer Frenchmen, all of whom died for what they believed was liberty.

France had been a fickle companion to both my husband and me, hadn't she? France was a changeling--constantly shifting on us, swerving just when we felt as though perhaps we might finally have a sure footing underneath.