{"quotes":[{"text":"In the games of queens and kings, we leave our dreams at the door and we make do with what we have. Sometimes if we’re fortunate, we still manage to have a good life.","author":"Melina Marchetta","tags":["dreams","kings","lives","loss","queens","rulership"],"id":14349,"author_id":"Melina+Marchetta"},{"text":"The hardest part of letting go is the 'uncertainty'--when you are afraid that the moment you let go of someone you will hate yourself when you find out how close you were to winning their affection. Every time you give yourself hope you steal away a part of your time, happiness and future. However, once in a while you wake up to this realization and you have to hold on tightly to this truth because your heart will tear away the foundation of your logic, by making excuses for why this person doesn't try as much as you. The truth is this: Real love is simple. We are the ones that make it complicated. A part of disconnecting is recognizing the difference between being desired and being valued. When someone loves you they will never keep you waiting, give their attention and affection away to others, allow you to continue hurting, or ignore what you have gone through for them. On the other hand, a person that desires you can't see your pain, only what they can get from you with minimal effort in return. They let you risk everything, while they guard their heart and reap the benefits of your feelings. We make so many excuses for the people we fall in love with and they make up even more to remain one foot in the door. However, the truth is God didn't create you to be treated as an option or to be disrespected repeatedly. He wants you to close the door. If someone loves you and wants to be in your life no obstacle will keep them from you. Remember, you are royalty, not a beggar.","author":"Shannon L. Alder","tags":["dignity","divorce","failed-relationships","future","haters","having-faith","healing","health","hurt","ignored","letting-go","limbo","living","love","mental-health","one-sided","open-doors","pain","pause","queens","recharging","relationships-101","repairing","self-worth","spiritual-health","staying-positive","stuck","tired","true-love","trusting-god"],"id":18120,"author_id":"Shannon+L.+Alder"},{"text":"Empowered Women 101: Forgive yourself for having chosen to expose yourself to people who don't care about your feelings and help others to do the same. Enjoy life! It is as simple as changing your focus or perspective when you start thinking about people from the past who hurt your feelings. Eventually, you will forget about those types of people because your time and attention will be taken up by more positive things/people/events/activities etc. When you understand how much time is wasted trying to make people see you, understand you, respect you, value you, like you or agree with you...Life becomes a pointless negative fight for validation that will drain your happiness. You are worth more than the indifference, inattention or crumbs people throw you. You are a queen that demands respect and God will bring the right person into your life to make you forget why you ever wasted your time on nothing important.","author":"Shannon L. Alder","tags":["bravery","compassionate","empowered-women","integrity","loving","powerful","quality","queens","stand-up-for-yourself","stayingpositiveu-com","strong","warrior-women"],"id":19641,"author_id":"Shannon+L.+Alder"},{"text":"The least we each ought to do for someone who treats us like a king or a queen is to treat them like a prince or a princess.","author":"Mokokoma Mokhonoana","tags":["aphorism","aphorisms","aphorist","aphorists","appreciate","appreciation","funny","hilarious","humor","humorous","humour","joke","jokes","king","kings","prince","princes","princess","princesses","queen","queens","quotations","quotes","satire","unappreciated"],"id":36428,"author_id":"Mokokoma+Mokhonoana"},{"text":"Empowered Women 101: A confident woman doesn't have to talk a man into loving her. He either loves her completely, not enough or not at all. Regardless, she doesn't settle for less than she deserves.","author":"Shannon L. Alder","tags":["confident-woman","doesn-t-settle","husbands","in-love","joyous","loved-completely","queens","respected","respectful-husbands","self-respect"],"id":45381,"author_id":"Shannon+L.+Alder"},{"text":"(Response to King Erik XIV of Sweden's proposal of marriage:)'[W]hile we perceive ... The zeal and love of your mind towards us is not diminished, yet in part we are grieved that we cannot gratify your Serene Highness with the same kind of affection. And that indeed does not happen because we doubt in any way of your love and honour, but, as often we have testified both in words and writing, that we have never yet conceived a feeling of that kind of affection towards anyone.We therefore beg your Serene Highness again and again that you be pleased to set a limit to your love, that it advance not beyond the laws of friendship for the present nor disregard them in the future. ... We certainly think that if God ever direct our hearts to consideration of marriage we shall never accept or choose any absent husband how powerful and wealthy a Prince soever. But that we are not to give you an answer until we have seen your person is so far from the thing itself that we never even considered such a thing. I have always given both to your brother ... And also to your ambassador likewise the same answer with scarcely any variation of the words, that we do not conceive in our heart to take a husband but highly commend this single life, and hope that your Serene Highness will no longer spend time in waiting for us.","author":"Elizabeth I","tags":["bachelorhood","empowerment","freedom","friendship","independence","love","marriage","marriage-proposal","matrimony","queens","refusal","self-determination","singles","women"],"id":69404,"author_id":"Elizabeth+I"},{"text":"You are not an option, a choice or a soft place to land after a long battle. You were meant to be the one. If you can wrap yourself around the idea that you are something incredible, then you will stop excusing behavior that rapes your very soul. You were never meant to teach someone to love you. You were meant to be loved.","author":"Shannon L. Alder","tags":["confidence","courage","dignity","doormats","empowering-women","empowerment","know-your-worth","love","love-yourself","queens","rise-up","self-esteem","self-respect","stay-positive","winning"],"id":72065,"author_id":"Shannon+L.+Alder"},{"text":"There's no point in fighting for the throne if you're not going to make a difference.","author":"Rhiannon Thomas","tags":["fantasy","long-may-she-reign","power","queen","queens","throne"],"id":76049,"author_id":"Rhiannon+Thomas"},{"text":"[F]rom 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 if 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.","author":"Elizabeth I","tags":["bachelorhood","choice","contentment","dignity","empowerment","freedom","independence","marriage","matrimony","queens","self-determination","singles","women"],"id":85864,"author_id":"Elizabeth+I"},{"text":"[I]n the end this shall be for me sufficient, that a marble stone shall declare that a Queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin.","author":"Elizabeth I","tags":["bachelorhood","dignity","freedom","good-governance","government","independence","marriage","matrimony","mementos","memory","queens","reign","self-determination","singles","sufficiency","virginity","women"],"id":99849,"author_id":"Elizabeth+I"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":44,"pages":5,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}