“It has been women who have breathed gentleness and care into the hard progress of humankind.”

My husband has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years, and I owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim.

[To the suggestion that Great Britain might someday want a Republic:] We’ll go quietly.

Good memories are our second chance at happiness.

Therefore I am sure that this, my Coronation, is not the symbol of a power and a splendour that are gone but a declaration of our hopes for the future, and for the years I may, by God’s Grace and Mercy, be given to reign and serve you as your Queen.

The upward course of a nation’s history is due in the long run to the soundness of heart of its average men and women

I myself prefer my New Zealand eggs for breakfast.

I can give my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.

There are long periods when life seems a small, dull round, a petty business with no point, and then suddenly we are caught up in some great event which gives us a glimpse of the solid and durable foundations of our existence.

At Christmas, I am always struck by how the spirit of togetherness lies also at the heart of the Christmas story. A young mother and a dutiful father with their baby were joined by poor shepherds and visitors from afar. They came with their gifts to worship the Christ child.

In remembering the appalling suffering of war on both sides, we recognise how precious is the peace we have built in Europe since 1945.

Madam President, speaking here in Dublin Castle it is impossible to ignore the weight of history, as it was yesterday when you and I laid wreaths at the Garden of Remembrance.

I believe that there is a great fear in our generation of being labeled as priggish.

[On being criticized for her serious expression:] I simply ache from smiling. Why are women expected to beam all the time? It’s unfair. If a man looks solemn, it’s automatically assumed he’s a serious person, not a miserable one.

I hope people will think very carefully about the future.

1992 is not a year I shall look back on with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it hasturned out to be an Annus Horribilis.

We have all felt those emotions in these last few days. So what I say to you now, as your queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart.

I’ve never been a manipulator, even in my bachelor days. I never wanted to do things to people that could catch up with me later on.

I was considered by my peers to be a good comedian. So that’s all I ever strived to do was get some recognition from my peers.

But China, they’ve been there for 3,000 years and are paying no attention to the barbarians and don’t see any need to.

I believed in God when cancer come to me. Now when I speak, I speak with authority because I’ve been there.

I’ve been through all the bad parts of the streets.

Africa is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

One of the great pleasures of going to see a Daniel Day-Lewis film: you haven’t seen him in five years. Where have you been?

The Migos, like anybody I ever been in the studio with, like an influence on my rap. I take this from him and him and him and, you know, put it with myself and make it work like that.