Abdication Quotes

I have solemnly renounced all political power. I shall never reassume it – never – even should the votes of the nation seek to restore me to it. This I have publicly declared and I do not go back on my word.

My duty is to pass this nation, which I inherited from my ancestors, on to future generations. Abiding by what Emperor Meiji preached, I will bear the hardships and carry out my duties and be loyal to the nation. After giving considerable thought to this matter, I am determined to devote myself to rebuilding the nation, while bearing the hardships. What would happen if I abdicated? People would ask why I abdicated. In that case, there would be turmoil.

When you're the king of someplace, you don't voluntarily leave.

Power abdicates only under stress of counter-power.

When you read history you that kings who have come to the end of their tether, as a rule, would suffer death rather than give up part of their power.

If you're a queen, you're powerless, so I'd probably demote myself and go shopping.

Yet there comes a time in the life of a patriot when abdication would amount to a betrayal if not outright treachery.

I feel much more strongly about the abdication of responsibility by the media than by political advocates. They're representing a constituency.

There will be no morality in the world unless the Emperor abdicates as quickly as circumstances permit…. The Emperor bears responsibility for being extremely negligent in the performance of his duties. He permitted the behavior of the military cliques and for many years did not do what he should have done.

You all know the reasons which have impelled me to renounce the throne. But I want you to understand that in making up my mind I did not forget the country or the empire, which, as Prince of Wales and lately as King, I have for twenty-five years tried to serve.

I didn't say I'm walking away. I said I was stepping down as chairman. I won't walk away. I'll be carried away.

I am not a governor of a Province. There can be no promotion for a King other than that of Heaven itself…. What possible right could I have to ask for an oath of allegiance from another people if I do not remain faithful to that which I had sworn to Holland when I ascended the throne.

I shall not vote because I do not aspire to advise my sovereign on the choice of her servants.

Even Kings may forfeit or discharge the allegiance of their subjects.

... fluctuating emotions ... [lead] us to excesses of both intervention and abdication.

I, poor in virtue and of contemptible personality, have incurred the wrath of God on high. My Ministers have deceived me. I am ashamed to meet my ancestors; and therefore I myself take off my crown, and with my hair covering my face, await dismemberment at the hands of the rebels. Do not hurt a single one of my people!

Submissiveness to fate, the total abdication of your own will in the shaping of your life, the recognition that it was impossible to guess the best and the worst ahead of time but that it was easy to take a step you would reproach yourself for-all this freed the prisoner from any bondage, made him calmer, and even ennobled him.

Love consents to all and commands only those who consent. Love is abdication. God is abdication.

There is no middle course between the throne and the scaffold.

Were we to slumber in indolence or fold up our arms and proclaim to the world that we are palsied by the will of our constituents, would it not be to cast away the bounties of Providence and doom ourselves to perpetual inferiority.

Satisfied if they themselves can escape from the hard labour of thought, they willingly abandon to others the guardianship of their thoughts.

Nothing more can be done for your interests or well-being and that I myself am an obstacle to the restoration of good relations between my brother [Napoleon Bonaparte Bonaparte] and this land… I shall never forget so good and virtuous a people as yourselves. My last thought and last concern will be for your happiness…

The one way, possibly, out of this is for [Bashar] Assad to abdicate and plead, perhaps to Russia or somewhere else. Would save another wave of civilian casualties if we could get him to abdicate.

If the Kaiser does not abdicate the social revolution is inevitable. I do not want it—in fact I hate it like sin.