Monarchs From Germany

"No words of man have ever been uttered worthy of comparison with the words of Christ."

"An exemplary Christian life, charitable love of our neighbour, and our weak or suffering brethren, the fear of God, loyalty to king and love of country—these are virtues to be practised, and these are the arms to which God will give the victory."

"I verily believe that everyone must feel a touch of inspiration when he stands before the altar and looks at the crucifix."

"Religion has never risen from science: it is an overflowing of the heart of man in his relations with God."

"Every Catholic ought to know that I honour his religion and that he will never be prevented in his exercise of it if he respects the beliefs of those who profess other faiths."

"My Catholic subjects can rely on my Imperial protection, wherever and whenever they may stand in need of it."

"May we always be mindful that it is our duty to protect religion which should be preserved for the nation, and to uphold morals and order."

"I am opposed to war; but war can only be avoided by exerting to the utmost the defensive forces of the State."

"I am well aware of the fact that by the public at large, and particularly in foreign countries, I am represented as entertaining a wanton and ambitious craving for war. May God keep me from such criminal folly."

"It is the power of tradition which on the field of battle as well as in peace makes men's heart beat higher for king and country, and inspires them to brave deeds."

"The same blood runs in English and German veins. I am a friend of England. The prevailing sentiment among large sections of the middle and lower classes of my own people is not friendly to England. I am, therefore, so to speak, in a minority in my own land; but it is a minority of the best elements."

"The British troops have filled me with the greatest admiration. If the possibility of a volunteer army is ever doubted, I shall be able to give such an army a testimony of efficiency."

"Germany possesses an army commensurate with her needs, and if Great Britain has a navy corresponding to her requirements, Europe in general cannot fail to regard it as a most important factor for the maintenance of peace."

"Among the many eminent qualities which the Americans possess, it is, above all, their spirit of enterprise, their sense of order, and their inventive capacity, which attract the attention of the whole world."

"The cultivation of ideals is the greatest work of civilization."

"All the works of man perish and decay."

"Why did the German Empire sink into decay? Because the old Empire was not founded on a strictly national basis. The idea of universal rule that underlay the Holy Roman Empire precluded a development on national German lines."

"Why are so many of our young men led astray? Why do so many reformers of the world make their appearance with their incoherent, confused theories? Why is it that there is always so much grumbling at our Government, and why are we so often referred to foreign countries for an example? Because young men do not know how our conditions have developed, and further, that they are but the outcome of the era of the French Revolution."

"If civilization is to fully perform its task, it must permeate to the lowest ranks of the people."

"There will come a day when Berlin will be the most beautiful city in the world."

"In the century to come, in spite of all new spirits and ideas, may the old loyalty to the monarchy show itself firm as a rock and as an example for other countries."

"Every man, however simple-minded he may be, has a feeling for what is beautiful or ugly."

"I regard every Social Democrat as an enemy of the Empire and Fatherland."

"I regard it as my duty, in the spirit of my parents, to hold my hand over my German people, its rising generation, to cultivate in them the sense of the beautiful, to develop in them a taste for art, but only on a definite path, only within definite limits, which lie in the feeling for beauty and harmony, that exists in the hearts of men."

"Sculpture has still for the most part remained untouched by the so-called modern tendencies and movements. It still stands there, noble and sublime."

"The man who breaks away from the law of beauty, the feeling for aesthetics and harmony, of which every human heart is sensible, even when it is unable to give it expression, and finds his main principle in the thought of some special tendency, some definite solution of what are rather technical problems, sins against the primary source and origin of art."

"My House has always cared for the working classes. The welfare of the working men lies near to my heart. Every subject who prefers a wish or petition has, as a matter of course, the ear of his Emperor."

"I do not disguise from myself the fact that I can never make all the members of our nation equally happy and contented. But I have good hope that I shall succeed in bringing about a state of things with which all can be content who have the will to be so."

"I lend my hand to any plan that can help to further the great cause of peace."

"I only wish that European peace lay in my hands. I should certainly take care it should never be disturbed."

"The German Empire, far from being a danger to other States, will be respected and trusted by the nations, and will remain as heretofore a mainstay of peace."

"It is, of course, my first duty to do everything that is possible to preserve peace, this is only natural, considering what work The North German Lloyd is called upon to perform; for trade and commerce can only thrive and flourish when business can be conducted under sure care and protection."

"The present situation arose not from temporary conflicts of interest or diplomatic combinations, but is the result of ill-will existing for years against the strength and prosperity of the German Empire. We are not pushed on by the desire of conquest; we are moved by the unbending desire to secure for ourselves and those coming after us the place on which God has put us."

"No one should judge the career of the Emperor William II without asking the question, "What should I have done in his position?" Imagine yourself brought up from childhood to believe that you were appointed by God to be the ruler of a mighty nation, and that the inherent virtue of your blood raised you far above ordinary mortals. Imagine succeeding in the twenties to the garnered prizes, in provinces, in power and in pride, of Bismarck's three successive victorious wars. Imagine feeling the magnificent German race bounding beneath you in ever-swelling numbers, strength, wealth and ambition; and imagine on every side the thunderous tributes of crowd-loyalty and the skilled unceasing flattery of courtierly adulation."

"I do not think there is another ruler who had better intentions than he had. He lived only for his calling—as he viewed it. All his thoughts and longings were centred round Germany. His relations, pleasures and amusements were all subservient to the one idea of making and keeping the German people great and happy, and if good will were sufficient to achieve great things William II would have achieved them."

"Every new publication makes the image of this weakling, coward, domineering brute and braggart, this posing dunce who plunged Germany into misfortune even more repugnant. There is not a single trait in him that could arouse sympathy or pity; he is entirely contemptible."

"[G]ifted, with a quick understanding, sometimes brilliant, with a taste for the modern — technology, industry, science — but at the same time superficial, hasty, restless, unable to relax, without any deeper level of seriousness, without any desire for hard work or drive to see things through to the end, without any sense of sobriety, for balance and boundaries, or even for reality and real problems, uncontrollable and scarcely capable of learning from experience, desperate for applause and success — as Bismarck said early on in his life, he wanted every day to be his birthday — romantic, sentimental and theatrical, unsure and arrogant, with an immeasurably exaggerated self-confidence and desire to show off, a juvenile cadet, who never took the tone of the officers' mess out of his voice, and brashly wanted to play the part of the supreme warlord, full of panicky fear of a monotonous life without any diversions, and yet aimless, pathological in his hatred against his English mother."

"With his contempt for everything civil, his contempt for the Slavs, his hatred of the Jews, his escalating fantasies of world power, he represented attitudes and ideas that were taken up, radicalized and put into practice by the National Socialists. In this respect, it is quite justified to call him a harbinger of Hitler."

"Under the much-used word freedom, and under its banner, artists often degenerate into monstrosity and exaggeration and conceit."

"The soldier and the army, not Parliamentary majorities and decisions, have welded the German Empire together. I put my trust in the army."