Who o’er the herd would wish to reign,
Fantastic, fickle, fierce, and vain!
Vain as the leaf upon the stream,
And fickle as a changeful dream;
Fantastic as a woman’s mood,
And fierce as Frenzy’s fever’d blood.
Thou many-headed monster thing,
Oh who would wish to be thy king!
Sir Walter Scott
“Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown” is one of Shakespeare’s most enduring lines, spoken in Henry IV, Part II by King Henry IV himself. The concise takeaway: leadership brings burden, vigilance, and sleepless responsibility — not just power.