She was still too young to know that life never gives anything for nothing, and that a price is always exacted for what fate bestows.

“Lightly, caressingly, Marie Antoinette picked up the crown as a gift. She was still too young to know that life never gives anything for nothing, and that a price is always exacted for what fate bestows. She did not think she would have to pay a price. She simply accepted the rights of her royal position and performed no duties in exchange. She wanted to combine two things which are, in actual human experience, incompatible; she wanted to reign and at the same time to enjoy.”

― Stefan Zweig, Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman

 

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1218083-lightly-caressingly-marie-antoinette-picked-up-the-crown-as-a