Quotes

[his public statement after abdicating his throne in order to marry Wallis Simpson, who became the Duchess of Windsor] "I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love."

I am deeply conscious of the presence of the great company of the dead, and I am convinced that could they make their voices heard they would be with me in what I am about to say. I speak simply as a soldier of the Last War whose most earnest prayer it is that such cruel and destructive madness shall never again overtake mankind. There is no land whose people want war.

It was in Britain's interest and in Europe's too, that Germany be encouraged to strike east and smash Communism forever ... I thought the rest of us could be fence-sitters while the Nazis and the Reds slogged it out.

[to Freda Dudley Ward in 1919] I love you, love you darling, and you know it, how you mean absolutely all and everything in life. Nothing else seems to matter now, not even my bloody job of which I am so, so sick.

Each day, I long more and more to chuck this job and be out of it. The more I think of it all, the more certain I am that, really, the day for kings and princes has passed. Monarchies are out of date.

I have travelled the world and my upbringing has made me familiar with the great achievements of mankind, but that which I have seen in Germany, I had hitherto believed to be impossible. It cannot be grasped, and is a miracle; one can only begin to understand it when one realizes that behind it all is one man and one will.