The Accidental Empress Quotes
"One does not simply send the emperor packing. You will marry Franz Joseph and you will be empress—it has been decided between our two houses."
"You are here to see your cousin, Franz, and your Aunt Sophie. Think of it that way."
"Your cousin, Franz Joseph, has ascended to the throne. He is emperor of Austria."
"Perhaps a bit serious—but then, the art of conversation can always be learned."
"I remember when I first arrived to court. I didn’t allow myself to show my nerves."
"The beauty of our Alps and the open Austrian vistas were a welcome sight after the oppressive pines of your forests, nay?"
"You must live the lives that are intended for us. And we must live them well."
"We are moving up in the world, the House of Wittelsbach, eh, Karl?"
"I can’t tell you how Helene prattled on about how beautiful her new country was! Why, Mamma and I felt that she had already forgotten her Bavarian roots in her eagerness to embrace her new homeland."
"It is unimaginably beautiful here. I should think there is no life more glorious than that of the Austrian goat herder."
"You are not a commoner, you are a duke’s daughter."
"No, I want a quiet life. A life of solitude does not scare me. In fact, it seems quite nice."
"Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength."
"I think anyone would benefit from it. I’d be happy to loan you my copies, Franz."
"How could a duke’s daughter make an emperor jealous?"
"You’re the emperor, You’ll find a way to get your bride up here."
"What’s the point of being emperor if I can’t have the one thing I most want?"
"He is a good man, Sisi. But I do not love him, and he does not love me."
"I was forced to remind him that there are matters of much greater importance with which he might concern himself."
"How could I have fallen in love with Helene with you beside her?"
"I will not be derailed—not after everything I have done to secure my son’s position."
"Isn’t what’s best for the empire a happy emperor?"
"A woman became much more beautiful with the full backing of the imperial court."
"This was not about a sixteen-year-old German girl marrying the young man she loved. This day was about empire."
"I think they've just heard the news of our marriage all the way to Russia."
"Keeping up the front. We play our roles today."
"I'm much more interested in the present, with the matter in front of me."
"Your Morgengabe... for your gallant efforts last night."
"World politics will not wait for us to honeymoon."
"I would take you to Paris. Or Florence, if I could."
"Do you remember when you first arrived at Bad Ischl?"
"I've wanted to hold you like this since the moment I beheld you."
"You didn’t even know it was me, the first time we met. That I was the emperor."
"She has a role to play. She must come out and finish the ceremony."
"My sweet Elisa. Please don’t be cross with me."
"You are pure to me, Elisa. My source of goodness."
"Sometimes I still feel like that little boy, looking down."
"I thought surely you were some imperial guard."
"Would you have loved me, even if I had been a guard?"
"I remember thinking then... now there was an emperor."
"What is the meaning of this? Do you not hear all of them whispering in there?"
"That is something you never need worry about, my darling."
"I will ask that you do not disrespect me—or Mother—like that again."
"I suppose you shall have to get used to her company, Sisi."
"But it's my sister. Surely I am allowed to hug my sister on my wedding day?"
"I was quite sad to see you gone this morning."
"I left before you awoke so that I wouldn’t upset you with a goodbye."
"I remember how he used to take me outside the palaces to watch the imperial guards conducting their drills."
"How much life had changed for that innocent, fifteen-year-old girl. A girl who stood in a fragrant garden, staring up at a wall of moonlit mountains and admitting to herself that she had fallen in love."
"This is your mamma’s favorite song, so you might as well become acquainted with it."
"The streets flickered as if under a candlelit halo."
"But I don’t care that they think that. As long as it’s what you think, Franz."
"It’s like a perfect combination of the two of us."
"I just wanted to know what it felt like to nurse my baby."
"Dream no small dreams, for they have no power to move the hearts of men."
"Perhaps there is a peaceful resolution possible?"
"I hope we’ll be as happy as you and the emperor are, my lady."
"I am just eager to see you happily married—you deserve nothing less."
"The natural destiny of a Queen is to give an heir to the throne."
"I love the Hungarian people, and their language, Count Andrássy. It strikes me as beautiful and nuanced, as they themselves are."
"I’ve heard that Your Majesties are great appreciators of music."
"If the Queen bears no sons, she is merely a foreigner in the State, and a very dangerous foreigner, too."
"They just want your love and acknowledgment, Franz. Give it to them, and they shall love you."
"It’s just that we are so happy here in Hungary. The whole family, together."
"You are as wild and obstinate as a mule. Just like your father always was."
"I don’t care! Let me be exposed—if they are sick, then I wish to suffer with them."
"My darling girl, my darling girl, Mamma is here."
"I’m sorry, Your Majesty. The Princess is an angel now."
"You never should have taken the little princesses on that trip. I knew nothing good would come of it."
"There is nothing to pray for, nothing to hope for."
"One daughter is gone, the other now lost to me, the same as if she were dead."
"I think, Madame, that you are worthy of your title: most beautiful woman in the world."
"I don’t like being surrounded by people I cannot trust."
"I’m here, Franz, aren’t I? I plan to take up my duties as empress once more."
"If I, as empress, can give even some small comfort to those men, to my subjects who have given so much for the empire, then I am more than happy to do it."
"To be loved for what one is, that is the greatest exception. The great majority love in others only what they lend him; their own selves, their version of him."
"This is the true measure of love: when we believe that we alone can love this way. That no one could ever have loved so before us. And that no one will ever love in the same way after us."
"There is nothing that requires more strength than to allow yourself to be weak for another."
"I've had to be so strong for so long. How can I risk, once more...?"
"It’s just that... I’ve had to be so strong for so long. How can I risk, once more..."
"All of these pieces of you that are broken, I see them. And I love them, too."
"Don’t you see that I did not know happiness until I came to you last night?"
"I did this because it was what was best for the empire. It was what was best for the emperor."