Otto von Bismarck > Quotes

“It is the destiny of the weak to be devoured by the strong.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Faust complained about having two souls in his breast, but I harbor a whole crowd of them and they quarrel. It is like being in a republic.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Politics are not a science based on logic; they are the capacity of always choosing at each instant, in constantly changing situations, the least harmful, the most useful.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“When you want to fool the world, tell the truth. ”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“the great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood”
― Otto von Bismarck

“God has a special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States of America.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war”
― Otto von Bismarck

“man cannot control the current of events. he can only float with them and steer”
― Otto von Bismarck

“the main thing is to make history not to write it”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Hounds follow those who feed them.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans (1888).”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“The statesman's task is to hear God's footsteps marching through history, and to try and catch on to His coattails as He marches past. ”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Verfallen wir nicht in den Fehler, bei jedem Andersmeinenden entweder an seinem Verständnis oder an seinem guten Willen zu zweifeln.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“[N]icht durch Reden und Majoritätsbeschlüsse werden die großen Fragen der Zeit entschiedenen [...] sondern durch Eisen und Blut.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“A conquering army on the border will not be stopped by eloquence.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Not by speeches and votes of the majority, are the great questions of the time decided — that was the error of 1848 and 1849 — but by iron and blood.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Never believe anything in politics until it has been offically denied.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“An appeal to fear never finds an echo in German hearts.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Politics ruins the character”
― Otto von Bismarck

“The Balkans aren't worth the life of a single Pomeranian grenadier.”
― Otto von Bismarck