Wilhelm II

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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 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 …

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

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 …

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

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

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.

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

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

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 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 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.

All the works of man perish and decay.

The cultivation of ideals is the greatest work of civilization.

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.

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.

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.

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 …