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Daily Inspiration Quote by Queen Victoria

"The important thing is not what they think of me, but what I think of them"

About this Quote

A queen insisting she doesnt care what they think is never just doing self-help. In Victorias mouth, the line doubles as a discipline tactic and a subtle reminder of the direction power is supposed to flow. The pivot from "me" to "them" isnt defensive; its evaluative. She recasts public opinion as noise and elevates royal judgment as the only metric that matters. Thats not mere pride its governance by gaze: the crown survives by ranking, rewarding, freezing out.

The subtext is especially pointed given Victorias century, when monarchy had to learn to coexist with mass politics, a ferocious press, and an expanding electorate. She was both symbol and target: caricatured, scrutinized, endlessly interpreted. This sentence reads like a private vaccination against that exposure. If you cant control the crowd, you can at least deny it the power to define you.

Theres also a sharp emotional logic under the steel. Victoria lived much of her reign managing grief, isolation, and the claustrophobia of being watched for a living. Declaring that other peoples opinions dont matter is a way to reclaim interior space. Yet the second clause gives away the real concern: she does care about people, just not on their terms. She reserves the right to approve, to dismiss, to decide who counts. Its a monarchs version of boundaries, less about serenity than sovereignty.

Quote Details

TopicConfidence
Source
Later attribution: The Mammoth Book of Great British Humour (Michael Powell, 2010) modern compilationISBN: 9781849016698 · ID: 5qmeBAAAQBAJ
Text match: 95.00%   Provider: Google Books
Evidence:
... The important thing is not what they think of me , but what I think of them . Queen Victoria I sometimes wonder if two - thirds of the globe is covered in red carpet . Prince Charles * The monarchy is finished . It was finished a while ...
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Victoria, Queen. (2026, February 16). The important thing is not what they think of me, but what I think of them. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-important-thing-is-not-what-they-think-of-me-15476/

Chicago Style
Victoria, Queen. "The important thing is not what they think of me, but what I think of them." FixQuotes. February 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-important-thing-is-not-what-they-think-of-me-15476/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The important thing is not what they think of me, but what I think of them." FixQuotes, 16 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-important-thing-is-not-what-they-think-of-me-15476/. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.

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Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria (May 24, 1819 - January 22, 1901) was a Royalty from United Kingdom.

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