And therefore I have come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor and my blood, even the dust. I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too.

— Elizabeth I

As for my own part I care not for death, for all men are mortal; and though I am a woman, yet I have as good a courage answerable to my place as ever my father had. I am your anointed Queen. I will never be by violence constrained to do anything. Furthermore, I thank God I am indeed endowed with such qualities that if I were turned out of the realm in my petticoat I were able to live in any place in Christendom.

— Elizabeth I

A strength to harm is perilous in the hand of an ambitious head.

— Elizabeth I

Do not tell secrets to those whose faith and silence you have not already tested.

— Elizabeth I

Fear not, we are of the nature of the lion, and cannot descend to the destruction of mice and such small beasts.

— Elizabeth I

[F]room my years of understanding ... I happily chose this kind of life in which I yet live [i.e., unmarried], which I assure you for my own part hath hitherto best contented myself and I trust hath been most acceptable to God. From the which is either ambition of high estate offered to me in marriage by the pleasure and appointment of my prince ... or if the eschewing of the danger of my enemies or the avoiding of the peril of death ... could have drawn or dissuaded me from this kind of life, I had not now remained in this estate wherein you see me. But so constant have I always continued in this determination ... yet is it most true that at this day I stand free from any other meaning that either I have had in times past or have at this present.

— Elizabeth I

God forgive you, but I never can.

— Elizabeth I

I do not so much rejoice that God hath made me to be a Queen, as to be a Queen over so thankful a people.

— Elizabeth I

I do not want a husband who honors me as a queen, if he does not love me as a woman.

— Elizabeth I

If I follow the inclination of my nature, it is this: beggar-woman and single, far rather than queen and married.

— Elizabeth I