"I was... told by a person who had known him [future Emperor Nicholas II] intimately from his childhood, that, though courteous, his main characteristic was an absolute indifference to most persons and things about him, and that he never showed a spark of ambition of any sort. This was confirmed by what I afterward saw of him at court. He seemed to stand about listlessly, speaking in a good-natured way to this or that person when it was easier than not to do so; but on the whole, indifferent to all which went on about him. After his accession to the throne, one of the best judges in Europe, who had many opportunities to observe him closely, said to me, "He knows nothing of his empire or of his people; he never goes out of his house, if he can help it." This explains in some degree the insufficiency of his program for the Peace Conference at The Hague and for the Japanese War, which, as I revise these lines, is bringing fearful disaster and disgrace upon Russia."
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Activists from the United StatesEducators from the United StatesHistorians from the United StatesUnited States Ambassadors to Russia and the Soviet UnionUnited States Ambassadors to Prussia and Germany
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https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andrew_Dickson_White
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Andrew Dickson White
Andrew Dickson White (November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918) was an American diplomat, author, and educator who was the co-founder and first president of Cornell University.
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