Bigger than the combined staffs of the six ministries running the French state

The household serving Louis XIV’s brother, approximately half the size of the king’s own household, was bigger than the combined staffs of the six ministries running the French state at the central level.

Duindam, Dynasties: a global history of power (2016), 224

One obedient slave is better than three hundred sons

One obedient slave is better than three hundred sons; for the latter desire their father’s death, the former his master’s glory.

In Nizam al-Mulk, The Book of Government, ed. H. Drake (1960), XXVII.117.  Cited in J. Duindam, Dynasties: a global history of power (2016), 87)