Scientia Potentia Est

The Crown 1×7

— So, it is always the Sovereign who begins the meal. It is absolutely forbidden to begin before he, or she, takes their first bite.
Princess Elizabeth: Oui, Mademoiselle.
— During the meal, when it is the first course, you must only speak to the person seated on your right until the end... Time for the Vice-Provost, Lilibet.

Queen Elizabeth II: At the time of my education, I asked the Vice-Provost if we shouldn't spend a bit of time on Literature, Philosophy, Science. He felt I had enough on my plate as it was. But don't you think I should have learned about it?
Queen Elizabeth: Why?
Queen Elizabeth II: Well, doesn't one have a duty to know certain things?
Queen Elizabeth: You have a great many other virtues. You can't be expected to know everything.
Queen Elizabeth II: Well, no, that's the point, Mummy. I know almost nothing.
Queen Elizabeth: You know when to keep your mouth shut. That's more important than anything.

Queen Elizabeth II: ... And that would be bad?
Winston Churchill: Oh, a disaster, Ma'am. For all the obvious reasons.
Queen Elizabeth II: Of course. Remind me. Of the obvious reasons.
Winston Churchill: Russia... is a great old empire which demands and deserves respect. Americans like to wave the big stick and speak with a loud voice. In the matter of world governance, they are not yet ready. They need an experienced and elder power to guide them, school them.
Queen Elizabeth II: Yes, we could all do with some school.

Queen Elizabeth II: I came because I wanted to ask you a question about my education.
Queen Elizabeth: What about it?
Queen Elizabeth II: The fact that I didn't receive one.
Queen Elizabeth: You did.
Queen Elizabeth II: Sewing, needlework and saying poems with Crawfie. That is not an education.
Queen Elizabeth: Darling, you also spent years one-on-one with the Vice-Provost of Eton College.
Queen Elizabeth II: Being drilled in the Constitution.
Queen Elizabeth: Which is far more than your sister ever got.

Winston Churchill: How much does she know exactly? Because, from the tone of this...
Clemmie Churchill: Winston.
Winston Churchill: She thinks it's a cold.
Clemmie Churchill: A cold?!
Winston Churchill: Yes, a cold. If she knew the truth, she would bid me stand down.
Clemmie Churchill: Good.
Winston Churchill: A replacement would have to be found. The wrong replacement, because the right man...
Clemmie Churchill: Anthony.
Winston Churchill: ...is himself incapacitated. Too much knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
Clemmie Churchill: Do you mean to tell me that, at the moment, this country's without a fit leader or a deputy leader?
Winston Churchill: Shh! Not so loud.

Sir Tommy Lascelles: There's a way of doing things here. An order developed over time, generations. And individuality in the House of Windsor, any departure from that way of doing things, is not to be encouraged. It results in catastrophes like the abdication.
Queen Elizabeth II: Abdicating the Throne and choosing my Private Secretary is hardly comparing like with like.
Sir Tommy Lascelles: I disagree... I served your uncle, as you know. And it's in the small things that the rot starts. Do the wrong thing once, it's easier to do it again. Do the individualistic thing once, it is easy to do it again.

Tommy Lascelles: Now, in the case of your uncle, it started with wanting to use Buckingham Palace simply as the office and York House as his home. Then he stopped attending church, decided he wanted to sell Sandringham. He dismissed courtiers who'd served under his father in favor of younger, sycophantic supplicants. Of course, no one saw the abdication coming then, but the ego, the willfulness, the individualism, the rot had set in.

Professor Hogg: What are you going to do?
Queen Elizabeth II: Nothing, of course. That's my job. Do nothing and stay silent at all times.
Professor Hogg: Is it? From memory, and forgive me, Ma'am, it's a while since I read Bagehot, but in circumstances such as these, is it not also your duty to act?
Queen Elizabeth II: I doubt it. I'd have to check.
Professor Hogg: I think you know precisely.
Queen Elizabeth II: Yes, it is. But I can't just summon the brightest, most formidable men in the country and give them a dressing down, like children.
Professor Hogg: Why? You are in the right, they in the wrong.
Queen Elizabeth II: Yes, but they're far more intelligent than I am. Any confrontation, they'd out-debate me, out-think me and out-maneuver me.
Professor Hogg: But this isn't about education or intelligence. This is about integrity and principle.

Professor Hogg: Ma'am, you say you don't have what it takes to do battle with these people. You do. You were drilled for years in the finer points of our Constitution. You know it better than me, better than all of us. You have the only education that matters.
Queen Elizabeth II: So what would you have me do?
Professor Hogg: Summon them and give them a good dressing down like children.
Queen Elizabeth II: Why would they stand for that?
Professor Hogg: Because they're English, male and upper class. A good dressing down from Nanny is what they most want in life.

Queen Elizabeth II: Is your health better now?
Winston Churchill: It is.
Queen Elizabeth II: Good. But is it sufficiently better? Fit for office better?.. I would ask you to consider your response in light of the respect that my rank and my office deserve, not that which my age and gender might suggest.
Winston Churchill: Ma'am... I look at you now and I realize that the time is fast approaching for me to step down. Not because I am unwell or unfit for office, but because you are ready. And therefore I have discharged my duty to your father.

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