Axel Oxenstierna

Axel Gustafsson Oxenstierna (16 June 1583 – 28 August 1654) was a Swedish statesman and Count of Södermöre. He became a member of the Swedish Privy Council in 1609 and served as Lord High Chancellor of Sweden from 1612 until his death. He was a confidant of King Gustavus Adolphus and then Queen Christina, for whom he was at first regent.

Quotes

• An nescis, mi filli, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur?
  • Don't you know, my son, with what little sense the world is governed?
  • Attributed to Oxenstierna in H. L. Mencken, "The Russian Phantasmagoria" [Review of My Life, by Leon Trotsky] in The American Mercury, 20 (July 1930) pp. 381–83. An almost identical translation is attributed (without the Latin) to Pope Julius III in Alan C. Filley, The Compleat Manager: What Works When (Champaign, IL: Research Press Co, 1978) ch. 2, p. 9:

    Do you know, my son, with what little understanding the world is ruled? [To a Portuguese monk who sympathised with the Pope's burden of office]