Peter the Great — "I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself."
I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself.
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More from Peter the Great
"The Russian people are like children who will never learn their alphabet unless compelled by their teacher."
"He who does not change, does not live."
"I prefer to have 100,000 enemies abroad than one at home."
"Lawyers! I have but two in my dominions, and I believe that I shall hang one of them the moment I get home!"
"A great city must have a great river."
About Peter the Great (1672-1725)
Russian tsar (1682-1725) who Westernized Russia, founded St. Petersburg, and built Russia into a European great power. Closely associated with Catherine the Great (later Westernizing Russian empress). For an intellectual contrast, see Old Believers, Russian Orthodox traditionalist movement that rejected Patriarch Nikon's reforms and Peter's modernization — Peter's beard-shaving decrees, Western dress laws, and calendar changes triggered a religious-cultural schism — the founding poles of Russia's eternal 'European modernity vs Slavic tradition' debate that runs through Slavophiles, Solzhenitsyn, and contemporary Putin-era ideology.
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