George V of the United Kingdom

Sourced

• No more coals to Newcastle, no more Hoares to Paris.
  • Said in December 1935 following the furore that erupted over the Hoare-Laval Pact.
  • Reported by Nigel Rees in his book Sayings of the Century, page 5. Rees notes the King may have been repeating a remark that was current anyway.

Attributed

• "After you've met one hundred and fifty Lord Mayors, they all begin to look the same."

• "I look upon him as the greatest criminal known for having plunged the world into war."
  • Statement about his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany (1918)

• "After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months."
  • Statement to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, referring to his son, Edward, Prince of Wales

• "You dress like a cad. You act like a cad. You are a cad."
  • George V to his son, Prince Edward. Quoted by Christopher Warwick in Abdication (Sidgwick and Jackson, 1986)

• "I may be uninspiring, but I'll be damned if I'm alien."
  • Said in response to H. G. Wells's criticism of his "alien [i.e. German-descended] and uninspiring court"

• "But, remember, I wish to have the best collection, not just one of the best collections in England."
  • King George V to J.A. Tilleard, Honorary Secretary, Philatelic Society, on appointing him as Philatelist to the King

• "You can't shake hands with a clenched fist."

• "Always go to the bathroom when you have a chance."

• "Golf always makes me so damned angry."

• "My father was frightened of his mother. I was frightened of my father and I am damned well going to see to it that my children are frightened of me."

• “What did you do about peeing?”
  • Said to Charles Lindberg after he flew the Atlantic solo in an aeroplane.

• "It's the shortest one I know."
  • King George V to Sir Thomas Beecham on the opera La Bohème, on why it was his favourite.

• "Bugger Bognor."
  • Alleged last words in 1936, in response to being told that he would soon be well enough to visit the seaside resort Bognor Regis
  • A second theory is that this dates from the King's 1928/9 recuperative visit there. Local dignitaries went to see the King's private secretary Stamfordham petitioning to have the town renamed Bognor Regis. The King told Stamfordham "Bugger Bognor", which he translated as the King would be pleased to grant their request. (Nigel Rees, Sayings of the Century page 6, quoting Kenneth Rose's biography of the King.)