Leopold II of Belgium

“Excuse me, dear niece, for this letter, which is really just a health bulletin. Especially concerned with a health so dear to me, I am almost unable to speak of anything else.”

“Whoever has a cold is stupid, because he just had to avoid catching a cold.”

“Nothing is more difficult than arriving at a court where nobody knows anyone in the world, add to that the Austrian Etiquette, and you can imagine what kind of evening I had to endure.”

“You just have to dare to succeed.”

“A Prince must not speak the language of the tribunes and proclaim absolute principles in terms which are likely to deeply offend those who are of another opinion than his own.”

“A battle with the Netherlands must be a surprise on our part, we must suddenly present ourselves there with weapons, disrupt the order, and keep the provinces that want to join, let the others go free as they please.”

“One aim of the hostilities is a reunification of Catholics under one crown, with the rivers as the northern boundary, to reach that goal we must launch a decisive attack on Amsterdam, depose the king, and at the very least let the people decide which government it prefers.”

“I want it to be and it will be.”

“I have only one goal and one desire, namely to give myself a practical instruction, to get to know the world and its inhabitants. There will come times when this knowledge will be of use to me.”

“Young trees need stakes to support them, but the stakes must be removed once the trees begin to grow, precisely so not to hinder their growth.”

“I sleep poorly. This long abstinence is destroying me. My nature needs frequent contacts with the beautiful gender. I don't understand how priests can live like this.”

“I am very satisfied with my invention. With this pocket, the rain can fall, and i'm not afraid: my beard will stay dry. You laugh, but you don't laugh when a woman, after washing her hair, dries it and wraps it in a towel. You are not laughing, and yet it is the same. Women drying their hair, and I guaranteeing my beard from the rain, we are only keeping us from colds!”