Otto von Bismarck quotes
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“People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“The main thing is to make history, not to write it.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“The death of Lincoln was a disaster for Christendom. There was no man in the United States great enough to wear his boots and the bankers went anew to grab the riches. I fear that foreign bankers with their craftiness and tortuous tricks will entirely control the exuberant riches of America and use it to systematically corrupt civilization.”
-- Otto von BismarckSource : "The C.S.L.T.: containing views on Abraham Lincoln as expressed by Bismarck in 1878, from the recollections of Conrad von Bauditz Siem". Book by Conrad von Bauditz Siem, 1915.
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“Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.”
-- Otto von BismarckSource : "American Speaker : Your Guide to Successful Speaking". Book by Aram Bakshian, 1992.
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“Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“man cannot control the current of events. he can only float with them and steer”
-- 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 -
“You can't destroy the polish national-consciousness or Poles on the battlefield, but if you give them power, they will destroy themselves”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“You can do anything with children if you only play with them.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.”
-- 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 BismarckSource : Speech to the Budget Commission of the Prussian Diet, September 30, 1862.
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“Whoever speaks of Europe is wrong: it is a geographical expression.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“The less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they'll sleep at night”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans (1888).”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“You can do everything with bayonets, but you are not able to sit on them”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“Our German forefathers had a very kind religion. They believed that, after death, they would meet again all the good dogs that had been their companions in life. I wish I could believe that too.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“I am accustomed to pay men back in their own coin.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“We live in a wondrous time in which the strong is weak because of his moral scruples and the weak grows strong because of his audacity.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I try to be a fraud and a half.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“We Germans fear God, but nothing else in the world.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“Universal suffrage is the government of a house by its nursery.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“Nothing should be left to an invaded people except their eyes for weeping.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“Beware of sentimental alliances where the consciousness of good deeds is the only compensation for noble sacrifices.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“Let us put Germany, so to speak, in the saddle! you will see that she can ride.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“One can put some trust in the gratitude of a sovereign, and also in that of his family; under certain conditions, one can even rely upon it; but one can never expect anything from the gratitude of a nation.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“I have wished to crush Rome that I might crush Christianity.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“A really great man is known by three signs: generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“The Catholic priest, from the moment he becomes a priest, is a sworn officer of the pope.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“I have often regretted what I have eaten, but never what I have drunk.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“Love is blind; friendship tries not to notice.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“I have found that nothing so deceives your adversaries as telling them the truth.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“An appeal to fear never finds an echo in German hearts.”
-- 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 -
“I have seen three emperors in their nakedness, and the sight was not inspiring.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“A statesman... must wait until he hears the steps of God sounding through events, then leap up and grasp the hem of His garment.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“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 -
“God has a special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States of America.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“A journalist is a person who has mistaken their calling.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“It is the destiny of the weak to be devoured by the strong.”
-- 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 is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“History is simply a piece of paper covered with print: the main thing is to make history, not to write it.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“Laws are like sausages. You sleep far better the less you know about how they are made.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“War should only be used for a policy worth its sacrifices.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“People who love sausage and people who believe in justice should never watch either of them being made”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“Politics is not a science...but an art.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“He who has his thumb on the purse has the power.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“Let them stew in their own grease (or juice).”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“In England the more horses a nobleman has, the more popular he is. So long as the English are devoted to racing, Socialism has no chance with you.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“I have only one ambition left: I should like to have a good epitaph.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“There is only one greater folly than that of the fool who says in his heart there is no God, and that is the folly of the people that says with its head that it does not know whether there is a God or not.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“Vanity is a mortgage that must be deducted from the value of a man.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“A little caution outflanks a large cavalry.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“A conquering army on the border will not be stopped by eloquence.”
-- Otto von BismarckSource : Speech to North German Reichstag, September 24, 1867.
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“They treat me like a fox, a cunning fellow ( Schlaukopf ) of the first rank. But the truth is that with a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and when I have to do with a pirate, I try to be a pirate and a half.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“I have always found the word 'Europe' on the lips of those who wanted something from others which they dared not demand in their own names!”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“This policy cannot succeed through speeches, and shooting-matches, and songs; it can only be carried out through blood and iron.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“I do not regard the procuring of peace as a matter in which we should play the role of arbiter between different opinions ... more that of an honest broker who really wants to press the business forward.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“The position of Prussia in Germany will not be determined by its liberalism but by its power ... Prussia must concentrate its strength and hold it for the favorable moment, which has already come and gone several times. Since the treaties of Vienna, our frontiers have been ill-designed for a healthy body politic. Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be decided - that was the great mistake of 1848 and 1849 - but by iron and blood (Eisen und Blut).”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“Better pointed bullets than pointed words.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“The Balkans arent worth the life of a single Pomeranian grenadier.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“All treaties between great states cease to be binding when they come in conflict with the struggle for existence.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“What we learn from History is that no one learns from History”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“I am bored. The great things are done. The German Reich is made.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“God always looks after the fools and — and the United States.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“A government must not waiver once it has chosen its course. It must not look to the left or right but go forward.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“The division of the United States into federations of equal force was decided long before the Civil War by the high financial powers of Europe. These bankers were afraid that the United States, if they remained in one block and as one nation, would attain economic and financial independence, which would upset their financial domination over the world. The voice of the Rothschilds prevailed... Therefore they sent their emissaries into the field to exploit the question of slavery and to open an abyss between the two sections of the Union.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“Earthly majesty is always akin to the fallen angel, who is proud and unhappy, beautiful but troubled, and whose plans and efforts, though vast, are denied access.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“Your map of Africa is really quite nice. But my map of Africa lies in Europe. Here is Russia, and here... is France, and we're in the middle - that's my map of Africa.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“Not even the King himself has the right to subordinate the interests of his country to his own feelings of love or hatred towards strangers; he is, however, responsible towards God and not to me if he does so, and therefore on this point I am silent.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“We Germans fear God, but nothing else in the world; and it is the fear of God, which lets us love and foster peace.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“Politics is not a science, as the professors are apt to suppose. It is an art.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“My subject is my life, and my life is my subject.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“Physicians still retain something of their priestly origin; they would gladly do what they forbid.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“A generation that has taken a beating is always followed by a generation that deals one.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“He obtained from Congress the right to borrow from the people by selling to it the 'bonds' of States ... and the Government and the nation escaped the plots of the foreign financiers. They understood at once, that the United States would escape their grip. The death of Lincoln was resolved upon.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“No civilization other than that which is Christian, is worth seeking or possessing.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“I have never lived on principles. When I have had to act, I never first asked myself on what principles I was going to act, but I went at it and did what I thought fit. I have often reproached myself for my want of principle.”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
“Revolutions in Prussia are started by kings, and since it is a revolution, it is better to start it ourselves than to suffer of it”
-- Otto von Bismarck -
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“When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.”
-- Otto von Bismarck
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