Luxury is the virtue of kings, sire: it is luxury which makes them resemble God; it is by luxury they are more than other men.
 Alexandre Dumas, The Vicomte de Bragelonne (1847). copy citation

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Author Alexandre Dumas
Source The Vicomte de Bragelonne
Topic virtue God
Date 1847
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2609/pg2609-images.html

Context

“I am not able, then, however willing I may be, to purchase such a valuable set of horses." Fouquet darted a haughty glance at the queen-mother, who appeared to triumph at the false position in which the minister had placed himself, and replied:-- "Luxury is the virtue of kings, sire: it is luxury which makes them resemble God; it is by luxury they are more than other men. With luxury a king nourishes his subjects, and honors them. Under the mild heat of this luxury of kings springs the luxury of individuals, a source of riches for the people. His majesty, by accepting the gift of these six incomparable horses, would stimulate the pride of his own breeders, of Limousin, Perche, and Normandy;” source