🏠 Home › Quotes › Ralph Waldo Emerson › "History is full, down to this day, ..." “ History is full, down to this day, of the imbecility of kings and governors. They are a class of persons much to be pitied, for they know not what they should do. ” “ What's more to do,Which would be planted newly with the time,As calling home our exiled friends abroadThat fled the snares of watchful tyranny,Producing forth the cruel ministersOf this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent handsTook off her life; this, and what needful elseThat calls upon us, by the grace of GraceWe will perform in measure, time, and place. ” — William Shakespeare