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[Begging the Tsar to stay out of World War One] We can't run a modern war, sir. We're not fighting Napoleon this time! Germany has ten miles of railway to every one of ours and they have a hundred factories for every one of ours. All we have is men! We'll be slaughtered like flies!
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[Continuing to plead to the Tsar to stay out of World War One] I'm old, sir. I've seen so many wars. They all seemed so important at the time. Now I don't even remember what they were called. Millions of dead men. I don't know why. Nobody knows. You could so easily stop this war, sir. All you have to do is get up. Now, quietly go home to your family. You'd be the greatest of all the tsars.
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[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.
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[Explaining the logistics of the Russo-Japanese War] Well Nicky, let me put it this way. Presents a bullet This is a bullet, munitioned in Saint Petersburg. I send it off to war. How does it get there? On a single spur of railroad track four thousand miles long. And in the middle, no track at all. God help us, it spends three days packed on sleds. This works the same way for every pair of boots, first aid kit, or pound of tea we send. Get out now, Nicky. While there is time.
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[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.
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[Signing his abdication papers] March 15, 1917. The Ides of March.
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[Speaking to the Tsar about the First World War] I could have won this war if I only had to confront one enemy in front of me, the Germans. But I had two enemies behind my back, your wife and her monk! You know, Rasputin actually wrote to me asking if he could come to the front lines to bless the troops. I replied that if he ever showed his face we would hang him on sight! I was an idiot to say that; should have let him come, we would have hung the bastard once he got here!
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[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!
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Do you like this scarf? Have it. [gives scarf to Rasputin] I am throwing a little soiree on Thursday, why not come? I cannot stop the revolution, but until it comes, let us have some fun. Even if it is only for a few more days.
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Don't be afraid the White Army must have broken through Help Anastasia.
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I speak, nobody pays attention. I write, nobody reads it. I am out of style, nobody is wearing me this season. I mean, three hundred years of Romanovs. What is not to say there will not be 300 more?
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I studied late to be a starets. I was twenty when this vision came. We peasants get them all the time. The Virgin Mary appears to us. She tells us when to sell our sheep when we want to make a profit. She told me to start walking; so I did. I kept walking throughout Europe and I waited for Her to tell me when to stop walking, but she did not. When I got to Greece, I could walk no more: so I resided in a monastery for two years and then proceeded to walk back to Russia again. Sometimes people ask me "What do I need to become a starets?" and I respond "Good feet."
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Imagine, sire, imagine that you are a factory worker. You're really poor. Your belly is never full. You freeze eight months of the year. Your children have no school, no doctor. Your country taxes you and sends your sons a continent away to die on a piece of land on the Pacific. Now sir, Japan is a third-rate power. If she defeats us, if Port Arthur falls, we shall be disgraced in the eyes of the world and here at home we shall have an insurrection on our hands.
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No fact begins with if.
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None if you will be here when this war ends. Everything we've fought for will be lost. Everything we've loved will be broken. The victors will be as cursed as the defeated. The world will grow old and men will wander about lost in the ruins and go mad. Tradition, virtue, restraint, they'll all go. I'm not mourning for myself, but for the people who will come after me. They will live without hope. And all they will have will be guilt, revenge, and terror, and the world will be full of fanatics and trivial fools.