Anyone who has ever aspired to create an empire knows that it takes hard work, dedication and a lot of sacrifice. While there is no one-size-fits-all blueprint for success, some entrepreneurs have managed to build empires by following their own unique paths. In today’s blog post, we’ve compiled a list of inspiring empire quotes from some of the most successful businesspeople in history.

1. Great empires are not maintained by timidity. — Tacitus

2. It is with deep grief I watch the clattering down of the British Empire with all its glories and all the services it has rendered to mankind. — Winston Churchill

3. Children of the future, watching empires fall. Madness the cup they drink from, self destruction the toll. — Ozzy Osbourne

4. I am utterly struck how, 300 years after his execution, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. — Peter Jennings

5. The empires of the future are the empires of the mind. — Winston S. Churchill

6. Winners are the favourites of heaven. — Tom Holland, In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire

7. My heart’s made of goldMy soul is pure steelLoved ones shall riseEnemies will kneelI soothe with water, attack with fireFor I am the master of my own empire. — Sarah Brownlee

8. Empire breeds terrorism. — Pat Buchanan

9. When I started Virgin from a basement flat in West London, I did not set out to build a business empire. I set out to create something I enjoyed that would pay the bills. — Richard Branson

10. All empires are created of blood and fire. — Pablo Escobar

11. In the eyes of empire builders men are not men but instruments. — Napoleon Bonaparte

12. If you look at the history of the U.S., we were an empire long before we were a nation. — Robert D. Kaplan

13. Poppe, once a leading figure at a scientific research institute, found a job as a swimming pool attendant — Victor Sebestyen, Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire

14. Man has ruled this world as a stumbling demented child king, long enough. And as his empire crumbles, my precious black widow shall rise as his most fitting successor. — Vincent Price

15. I’ve found that what most people call luck is often little more than raw talent combined with the ability to make the most of opportunities. (Talon Karrde) — Timothy Zahn, Heir to the Empire

16. Europe is a molehill. All great empires and revolutions have been on the Orient; six hundred millions live there. — Napoleon Bonaparte

17. Governments and entire planets are important, Threepio. But when you sift everything down, they’re all just made of people. — Timothy Zahn, Heir to the Empire

18. The empires of the future are the empires of the mind. — Winston S. Churchill

19. All great empires die from within. — Terry Bradshaw

20. A court that wouldn’t just change the world. It would start the world over. — Sarah J. Maas, Empire of Storms

21. It seems that the most important thing about Reagan was his anti–Communism and his reputation as a hawk who saw the Soviet Union as an ‘evil empire.’ — Mikhail Gorbachev

22. You must have a bladder like Lake Erie. I think empires rose and fell in the time it took you to pee. I could hear it the whole time.’ Thank you. Do you want something? — Neil Gaiman

23. In the eyes of empire builders men are not men but instruments. — Napoleon Bonaparte

24. I knew a girl so ugly, I took her to the top of the Empire State building and planes started to attack her. — Rodney Dangerfield

25. As much wisdom may be expended on a private economy as on an empire, and as much wisdom may be drawn from it. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

26. The foundation of empire is art and science. Remove them or degrade them, and the empire is no more. Empire follows art and not vice versa as Englishmen suppose. — William Blake

27. The sun never sets on the British Empire. But it rises every morning. The sky must get awfully crowded. — Steven Wright

28. You don’t need to work hard to earn an empire — there is an army of slaves to do it for you.

29. ‘i know something about a lot of things, ” she countered evenly. ”That’s why you’re grooming me to be your lieutenant, remember?”–Mara Jade’ — Timothy Zahn, Heir to the Empire

30. All great empires die from within. — Terry Bradshaw

31. In this manner , we are told, the system of the imaginary is spread circularly, by detours and returns the length of an empty subject. — Roland Barthes, Empire of Signs

32. I would like my personal reading map to resemble a map of the British Empire circa 1900. — Nick Hornby, Housekeeping vs. the Dirt

33. Do you know out of what the German Empire arose? Out of dreams, songs, fantasies and black–red–gold ribbons? Bismarck merely shook the tree that fantasies had planted. — Theodor Herzl

34. The way to a landowner’s heart was to tax gently. — Peter Heather, The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians

35. Passivity can be a provoking modus operandi; Consider the Empire and Gandhi. — Ogden Nash

36. The way to a landowner’s heart was to tax gently. — Peter Heather, The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians

37. What have I become?My sweetest friend — everyone I know goes away in the end.And you could have it all:my empire of dirt.I will let you down.I will make you hurt.

38. ‘i know something about a lot of things, ” she countered evenly. ”That’s why you’re grooming me to be your lieutenant, remember?”–Mara Jade’ — Timothy Zahn, Heir to the Empire

39. Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now. And it’s *because* they sat there that they were able to do it. — Ryan Bingham

40. Empire always overreaches itself and thus dies by its own hand victim of its own ambitions — rassool jibraeel snyman

41. What have I become?My sweetest friend — everyone I know goes away in the end.And you could have it all:my empire of dirt.I will let you down.I will make you hurt.

42. Some women born to raise a beautiful families while some women are born to build an empire from ashes and rule the rest. — Pradeepa Pandiyan

43. ‘we’d better eat before we raise hell.”–Aelin Ashrvyer Galathynius’ — Sarah J. Maas, Empire of Storms

44. That living has no value–it’s what you do with life that gives it worth. — Michael J. Sullivan, Rise of Empire

45. He was a stylist, not a thinker. He spent time trying to say things in as complicated a way as possible. — Peter Heather, The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians

46. ‘max would conclude, ”that’s who I want to be. The pope. And I’ll do the same thing he does. I’ll keep all the goddamn money.’ — Richard Russo, Empire Falls

47. The empires of the future are the empires of the mind. — Winston S. Churchill

48. I made ‘Empire of the Sun’ in Shanghai in the 1980s and want to come back one day to make a movie in China. — Steven Spielberg

49. Thane had never been one of the idealists — he’d accepted Wedge Antilles’s invitation not because he believed the Rebellion was pure good but because he’d learned the Empire was pure evil.

50. I’ve found that what most people call luck is often little more than raw talent combined with the ability to make the most of opportunities. (Talon Karrde) — Timothy Zahn, Heir to the Empire

In conclusion, the best quotes about empire demonstrate the complexities of the concept of empire and the various ways it can be perceived. From the idea of a powerful, hierarchical structure to a symbol of liberation, the quotes show that there is no one-size-fits-all definition for what an empire is. Empires can be both good and bad, depending on the context and the perspective. Ultimately, it is up to each of us to decide what we believe about them and how we will use them.