I have sworn to myself that I will neglect nothing to bring about the unity of our people, and to crush everything that tends to divide the nation. - Wilhelm II

I will take the Duchy of Courland, I, the victor by the strength of my sword, but not from the hand of the assembly.

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.

[Peace] is completely impossible between Slavs and Germans...Peace with Russia can only be maintained by fear of us. The Slavs will always hate us and remain our enemies! they are only frightened of a man and they only respect him if he hits them hard! S. [see] Japan! So it will be with us, too! The Entente, if it wants, and if my diplomacy is too stupid, can always do what it likes in Russia - it has driven it into war; but our preponderance in the German area is necessary to keep Russia away from our eastern frontier once and for all; no peace with Russia, however favourable, will give us that!