Prussians

"The population of Belgium...behaved in a diabolical, not to say bestial, manner, not one iota better than the Cossacks. They tortured the wounded, beat them to death, killed doctors and medical orderlies, fired secretly...on men harmlessly standing in the street - in fact by prearranged signal, under leadership...The King of the Belgians has to be notified at once that since his people have placed themselves outside all observance of European customs - from the frontier on, in all the villages, not only in Liege - they will be treated accordingly. Conditions for Belgium will become immensely more difficult."

"Arise, to arms! All hesitation, all delay is treason to the country. It is a question of the life or death of our Empire, of the life or death of German Might. We shall defend ourselves to the last breath and to the last man. Though a world of enemies come, we shall fight notwithstanding. When Germany has remained united, she has never been vanquished. Forward with God, for God will be with us as He was with our fathers."

"You will be home before the leaves fall from the trees."

"The shotgun is the most immoral and reprehensible weapon to ever be deployed. We fight this war with the hopes of vanquishing these weapons from the continent."

"England must...have the mask of Christian peaceableness torn publicly off her face...Our consuls in Turkey and India, agents, etc., must inflame the whole Mohammedan world to wild revolt against this hateful, lying, conscienceless people of hagglers; for if we are to be bled to death, at least England shall lose India."

"Must stay there and also foment war and revolt against England. Doesn't he yet know of the intended alliance, under which he is to be Commander in Chief?!"

"Ich kenne keine Parteien mehr, ich kenne nur noch Deutsche!"

"[The unavoidable] racial war, the war of Slavdom against Germandom...[in which the] Anglo-Saxons with whom we are related by common ancestry, religion and civilisatory striving, allow themselves to be used as tools of the Slavs...if this question...cannot be solved by diplomacy, then it will have to be decided by armed force. The solution can be postponed but the question will arise again in 1 or 2 years. The racial struggle cannot be avoided - perhaps it will not take place now, but it will probably take place in one or two years."

"[The coming war is] the last battle between Teutons (Germans) and Slavs [which would] find the Anglo-Saxons on the side of the Slavs and the Gauls...[England] wanted to forbid other Powers to defend their interests...with the sword. … England will undoubtedly stand behind France and Russia against Germany out of hatred and envy. The imminent struggle for existence which the Germanic peoples of Europe (Austria, Germany) will have to fight out against the Slavs (Russians) and their Latin (Gallic) supporters finds the Anglo-Saxons on the side of the Slavs. Reason: petty envy, fear of our growing big."

"Krupp cannon have thundered over the battlefields where German unity was fought for and won, and Krupp cannon are the energy of the German army and navy today. The ships constructed in the Krupp yards carry the German flag into every sea. Krupp steel protects our vessels and our forts...But the Krupp works has not only been an exploiter in this sense. It has also been the first in Germany to recognize the new social problems and to seek to solve them, thus leading to social legislation."

"You British are mad, like bulls seeing a red rag! What has happened to you to overwhelm us with suspicions that are unworthy of a great nation! What else shall I do? I have always described myself as a friend of Britain. ... Have I ever broken my word? ... This misunderstanding strikes me as a personal insult."

"I look on myself as an instrument of the Almighty and go on my way regardless of transient opinions and views."

"Shoot down, behead and eliminate the Socialists first, if need be, by a blood-bath, then war abroad. But not before, and not à tempo."

"Chapter 2 of the Great Migrations...is over. Now comes Chapter 3, the Germanic peoples' fight for their existence against Russo-Gallia. No further conference can smooth this over, for it is not a question of high politics, but one of race...for what is at issue is whether the Germanic race is to be or not to be in Europe."

"I repudiate these attacks on him...a German of the Germans...his honour so assailed. Who made this infamous attack upon our friend? Men who till now have been looked upon as Germans, but who henceforth are unworthy of that name. And these men come from the Reich's working classes, who owe so infinite a debt of gratitude to Krupp!"

"[The German Legion] which, in conjunction with Blucher and the Prussians at Waterloo, saved the British Army from destruction."

"In spite of the fact that we have no such fleet as we should have, we have conquered for ourselves a place in the sun. It will now be my task to see to it that this place in the sun shall remain our undisputed possession, in order that the sun's rays may fall fruitfully upon our activity and trade in foreign parts, that our industry and agriculture may develop within the state and our sailing sports upon the water, for our future lies upon the water."

"The Slavs have now become unrestful and will want to attack Austria. Germany is bound to stand by her ally - Russia and France will join in and then England...I am a man of peace - but now I have to arm my Country so that whoever falls on me I can crush - and crush them I will."

"I am not a man who believes that we Germans bled and conquered thirty years ago...in order to be pushed to one side when great international decisions call to be made. If that were to happen, the place of Germany as a world power would be gone for ever, and I am not prepared to let that happen. It is my duty and privilege to employ to this end without hesitation the most appropriate and, if need be, the sharper methods."

"[I myself will] never acknowledge an Englishman again for the rest of [my] life, nor wear an English Order on [my] chest. The fellows must be brought to their knees."

"Should you encounter the enemy, he will be defeated! No quarter will be given! Prisoners will not be taken! Whoever falls into your hands is forfeited. Just as a thousand years ago the Huns under their King Attila made a name for themselves, one that even today makes them seem mighty in history and legend, may the name German be affirmed by you in such a way in China that no Chinese will ever again dare to look cross-eyed at a German."

"The British navy is strong enough to defy any hostile combination; Germany has, practically speaking, no navy. I am therefore compelled to observe the strictest neutrality. Before everything else I must provide myself with a navy. In twenty years' time, when the navy is ready, I shall speak a very different language."

"The Tsar is not treacherous but he is weak. Weakness is not treachery, but it fulfils all its functions."

"I am just now not reading but devouring Captain Mahan's book and am trying to learn it by heart. It is a first-class book and classical on all points."

"There is a breed of men who do not deserve the name of Germans. I trust that the entire nation will find the strength to beat back their outrageous attacks. If that does not occur, I shall have to call on you, my Guards, for protection against the gang of traitors and for leading the battle which will free us from such elements."

"You [recruits] have sworn loyalty to me. You have only one enemy and that is my enemy. In the present social confusion, it may come about that I order you to shoot down your own relatives, brothers or parents but even then you must follow my orders without a murmur."

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

"There is only one person who is master in this Empire and I am not going to tolerate any other."

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

"The Party which dares to attack the foundations of our State, which sets itself against religion and does not stop at attacking the person of the All-Highest Ruler must be rooted out to the very last stump."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

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

"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."

"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."

"The poor French...They have not read their Mahan!"

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

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