Quotes by
Otto von Bismarck |
1815-1898 , German chancellor
Prussian statesman who dominated German and European affairs from the 1860s until 1890. In the 1860s, he engineered a series of wars that unified the German states, significantly and deliberately excluding Austria, into a powerful German Empire under Prussian leadership. Prime minister of Prussia (1862–73, 1873–90) and founder and first chancellor (1871–90) of the German Empire.
| 20 quotes | 13,027 visits |
Quotations
| • | Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others. 27 |
| • | People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election. 20 |
| • | Three professors- Homeland is lost. Drei Professoren - Vaterland verloren! 19 |
| • | Preventive war is like committing suicide for fear of death. 15 |
| • | Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war. 14 |
| • | I have seen three emperors in their nakedness, and the sight was not inspiring. 13 |
| • | One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans. (prediction of 1888) 11 |
| • | Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied. 11 |
| • | The Balkans aren't worth the life of a single Pomeranian grenadier. 9 |
| • | Laws are like sausages. It is better not to see them being made. 8 |
| • | A really great man is known by three signs: generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success. 7 |
| • | The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia. 6 |
| • | Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best 5 |
| • | Hounds follow those who feed them. 5 |
| • | The great questions of the time are not decided by speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood. 4 |
| • | There is a special providence for drunkards, fools, and the United States of America. 4 |
| • | Politics is not an exact science. 3 |
| • | With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I try to be a fraud and a half. 3 |
| • | Political judgment is the ability to hear the distant hoofbeats of the horse of history. 3 |
| • | When you say you agree to a thing in principle you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice. 3 |