quotes

View Quote [On his newborn son] The boy will bring us luck. We will smash the Japanese and kick them out of Korea, and I do not care the cost! I have a son to fight for now.

View Quote No fact begins with if.

View Quote The English have a parliament. Our British cousins gave their rights away; the Hapsburgs, and the Hohenzollerns, too. The Romanovs will not. What I was given, I will give my son.

View Quote [Touring Russia by railroad in honor of the Tricentennial of the House of Romanov] I did not want to do this tour. But God, I so love it when they stand and wave!

View Quote Stolypin is a good man. They always kill the good ones... I cannot find a match. Does anyone have a match?... It happened with my grandfather, too. He helped the serfs; he freed them. So how did the peasants express their gratitude? They threw a bomb at him. Damn those revolutionaries. You try to help them by giving them what they want, and what do you get for it? Bombs, gunshots, assassinations! I want them rooted out. I want something done, do you understand me? I want them paid in kind!

View Quote [Explaining the events of 1914 to his son Alexei] You see, sometimes governments do things their people do not like. So the people react in different ways. The British vote. The Americans frequently remind their leaders of the U.S. Constitution. And the Serbs throw bombs. You see, Serbia wants its independence. But Austria will not grant it to them. So the Serbs resort to violence. It has happened in this country too sometimes. Your great-grandfather was killed by a bomb; so was Uncle Sergei. But Serbia is a long way away. Our foreign ministry will write some angry letters to the Serbian leaders, our generals will go on exercise, and everything will be right again. And we do not need have bad dreams about archdukes. All over Europe, kings and queens are sleeping safely in their beds, and that is what we are going to do, too.

View Quote [Signing his abdication papers] March 15, 1917. The Ides of March.

View Quote [Angrily, to Alexandra] All my life... my whole life, I've done what you want. I gave Mother up. You hated her, so we don't see her anymore. I gave my friends up. Do you know I haven't a single friend? I've got my family. Four girls, one sick boy... and you. I ask myself, before I eat, sleep, or change my clothes, "Is this what Sunny wants?" And it never is. There's always more! Sweet Jesus, how much do you want of me?!

View Quote Don't be afraid the White Army must have broken through Help Anastasia.