"In my position you have to read when you want to write and talk when you would like to read."
— Catherine the Great
In My Position You Have To
In my position you have to read when you want to write and talk when you would like to read.
About this quote
Attributed to Catherine the Great from her correspondence, this remark describes the paradox of power: the ruler's own desires are constantly subordinated to political necessity. Catherine was Empress for 34 years and is estimated to have dictated or written tens of thousands of letters and decrees. She expressed similar frustrations in her memoirs, noting that public life left little room for private intellectual pursuits — even as she built one of Europe's great art collections (the foundation of today's Hermitage Museum) and continued to read and write throughout her reign.
Source
Attributed, from Catherine's correspondence
