Otto Von Bismarck Quotes

#1. War should only be used for a policy worth its sacrifices.

Otto Von Bismarck

#2. I have often regretted what I have eaten, but never what I have drunk.

Otto Von Bismarck

#3. Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others experience.

Otto Von Bismarck

#4. Politics is the art of the next best.

Otto Von Bismarck

#5. [Government]is cancerous in head and limbs;only its belly is sound, and the laws it excretes are the most strightforward shit in the world.

Otto Von Bismarck

#6. Vanity is a mortgage that must be deducted from the value of a man.

Otto Von Bismarck

#7. Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.

Otto Von Bismarck

#8. God always looks after the fools and - and the United States.

Otto Von Bismarck

#9. I have only one ambition left: I should like to have a good epitaph.

Otto Von Bismarck

#10. 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

#11. 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

#12. 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

#13. A conquering army on the border will not be stopped by eloquence.

Otto Von Bismarck

#14. The main thing is to make history not to write it

Otto Von Bismarck

#15. We are better off not knowing how sausages and laws are made.

Otto Von Bismarck

#16. 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

#17. That which is imposing here on earth has always something of the quality of the fallen angel who is beautiful but without peace, great in his conceptions and exertions but without succes, proud and lonely.

Otto Von Bismarck

#18. Life has taught me to forgive much, but to seek forgiveness still more.

Otto Von Bismarck

#19. Love is blind; friendship tries not to notice.

Otto Von Bismarck

#20. Never fight with Russian. On your every stratagem they answer unpredictable stupidity.

Otto Von Bismarck

#21. God has a special providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America.

Otto Von Bismarck

#22. I am accustomed to pay men back in their own coin.

Otto Von Bismarck

#23. The most significant event of the 20th century will be the fact that the North Americans speak English.

Otto Von Bismarck

#24. My subject is my life, and my life is my subject.

Otto Von Bismarck

#25. I have seen three emperors in their nakedness, and the sight was not inspiring.

Otto Von Bismarck

#26. 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

#27. 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

#28. Woe to the leader whose arguments at the end of a war are not as plausible as they were at the beginning.

Otto Von Bismarck

#29. If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.

Otto Von Bismarck

#30. If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans.

Otto Von Bismarck

#31. 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

#32. 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

#33. With bad laws and good civil servants it's still possible to govern. But with bad civil servants even the best laws can't help.

Otto Von Bismarck

#34. 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

#35. Politics is like sausages, you don't want to watch either being made.

Otto Von Bismarck

#36. Politics is not a science ... but an art.

Otto Von Bismarck

#37. 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

#38. Politics is the art of the possible.

Otto Von Bismarck

#39. There are two things civilized Man should never see being made: Sausages and Laws.

Otto Von Bismarck

#40. One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans (1888).

Otto Von Bismarck

#41. I have wished to crush Rome that I might crush Christianity.

Otto Von Bismarck

#42. There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America.

Otto Von Bismarck

#43. 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

#44. I have found that nothing so deceives your adversaries as telling them the truth.

Otto Von Bismarck

#45. 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

#46. Politics is no exact science.

Otto Von Bismarck

#47. Politics ruins the character

Otto Von Bismarck

#48. 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

#49. To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.

Otto Von Bismarck

#50. Fools you are. To say you learn by your experience. I prefer to profit by others' mistakes and avoid the price of my own.

Otto Von Bismarck

#51. Physicians still retain something of their priestly origin; they would gladly do what they forbid.

Otto Von Bismarck

#52. It is the destiny of the weak to be devoured by the strong.

Otto Von Bismarck

#53. Let them stew in their own grease (or juice).

Otto Von Bismarck

#54. A journalist is a person who has mistaken their calling.

Otto Von Bismarck

#55. Whoever speaks of Europe is wrong: it is a geographical expression.

Otto Von Bismarck

#56. A Bavarian is half-way between an Austrian and a human being.

Otto Von Bismarck

#57. Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made.

Otto Von Bismarck

#58. Lord takes care of babes, fools, and the United States.

Otto Von Bismarck

#59. 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

#60. 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

#61. I consider even a victorious war as an evil, from which statesmanship must endeavor to spare nations.

Otto Von Bismarck

#62. This policy cannot succeed through speeches, and shooting-matches, and songs; it can only be carried out through blood and iron.

Otto Von Bismarck

#63. The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia.

Otto Von Bismarck

#64. 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.

Otto Von Bismarck

#65. Great men have great dogs.

Otto Von Bismarck

#66. 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

#67. Universal suffrage is the government of a house by its nursery.

Otto Von Bismarck

#68. An appeal to fear never finds an echo in German hearts.

Otto Von Bismarck

#69. He who has his thumb on the purse has the power.

Otto Von Bismarck

#70. Politics is not an exact science.

Otto Von Bismarck

#71. 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

#72. I am bored. The great things are done. The German Reich is made.

Otto Von Bismarck

#73. Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.

Otto Von Bismarck

#74. Let us put Germany, so to speak, in the saddle! you will see that she can ride.

Otto Von Bismarck

#75. No civilization other than that which is Christian, is worth seeking or possessing.

Otto Von Bismarck

#76. Political judgment is the ability to hear the distant hoofbeats of the horse of history.

Otto Von Bismarck

#77. The nation that has the schools has the future.

Otto Von Bismarck

#78. A government must not waiver once it has chosen it's course. It must not look to the left or right but go forward.

Otto Von Bismarck

#79. 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

#80. Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death.

Otto Von Bismarck

#81. 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

#82. 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

#83. The luxury of one's own opinion.

Otto Von Bismarck

#84. A really great man is known by three signs: generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success.

Otto Von Bismarck

#85. Better pointed bullets than pointed words.

Otto Von Bismarck

#86. In order to retain a certain respect for sausages and laws, one must not see them being made.

Otto Von Bismarck

#87. Show me an objective worthy of war and I will go along with you.

Otto Von Bismarck

#88. A generation that has taken a beating is always followed by a generation that deals one.

Otto Von Bismarck

#89. Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

Otto Von Bismarck

#90. What we learn from History is that no one learns from History

Otto Von Bismarck

#91. You can do anything with children if you only play with them.

Otto Von Bismarck

#92. Hounds follow those who feed them.

Otto Von Bismarck

#93. People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt.

Otto Von Bismarck

#94. Politics is not a science, as the professors are apt to suppose. It is an art.

Otto Von Bismarck

#95. A bad plan that is well executed will yield much better results than a good plan that is poorly executed.

Otto Von Bismarck

#96. Even the most favorable outcome of the war will never lead to the decomposition of the main forces of Russia, which is based on millions of Russian ... The latter, even if they break up international treaties, just as quickly re-connect with each other, like pieces of a particle of mercury ...

Otto Von Bismarck

#97. Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.

Otto Von Bismarck

#98. The Americans are a very lucky people. They're bordered to the north and south by weak neighbors, and to the east and west by fish.

Otto Von Bismarck

#99. You can do everything with bayonets, but you are not able to sit on them

Otto Von Bismarck

#100. The Catholic priest, from the moment he becomes a priest, is a sworn officer of the pope.

Otto Von Bismarck