[Ads-l] Catherine the Great Quote

[Shapiro, Fred]

The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations has the following quote listed under Catherine the Great:


Moi, je serai autocrate: c'est mon metier.  Et le bon Dieu me pardonnera: c'est son metier.  [diacritics omitted]

I shall be an autocrat: that's my trade.  And the good Lord will forgive me: that's his.

attributed


Can anyone help me determine the earliest findable occurrence of this attributed quotation?


Fred Shapiro

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