Empire

Empire

The term empire derives from the Latin imperium (power, authority). Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples (ethnic groups) united and ruled either by a monarch (emperor, empress) or an oligarchy.

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Famous quotes containing the word empire:

    On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.
    Gore Vidal (b. 1925)

    Thy blood and virtue
    Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness
    Share with thy birthright! Love all, trust a few,
    Do wrong to none. Be able for thine enemy
    Rather in power than use, and keep thy friend
    Under thy own life’s key. Be checked for silence
    But never taxed for speech.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    The war shook down the Tsardom, an unspeakable abomination, and made an end of the new German Empire and the old Apostolic Austrian one. It ... gave votes and seats in Parliament to women.... But if society can be reformed only by the accidental results of horrible catastrophes ... what hope is there for mankind in them? The war was a horror and everybody is the worse for it.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)