Otto Von Bismarck Quotes

I have wished to crush Rome that I might crush Christianity. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

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

The bureaucracy is what we all suffer from. ~ Prince Otto Von Bismarck

Politics is not a science, as the professors are apt to suppose. It is an art. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Politics ruins the character ~ Otto Von Bismarck

In order to retain a certain respect for sausages and laws, one must not see them being made. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable - the art of the next best ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Laws are like medicine; they generally cure an evil by a lesser or a passing evil. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

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

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

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

A journalist is a person who has mistaken their calling. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Otto von Bismarck quipped, Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made. ~ Cory Doctorow

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

The luxury of one's own opinion. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Better pointed bullets than pointed words. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Great men have great dogs. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

There are two things you don't want to see being made - sausage and legislation. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Do not expect that once taking advantage of Russia's weakness, you will receive dividends forever. Russian has always come for their money. And when they come - do not rely on an agreement signed by you, you are supposed to justify. They are not worth the paper it is written. Therefore, with the Russian is to play fair, or do not play. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

The German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, was one of the few authentic geniuses among nineteenth-century statesmen. ~ Niall Ferguson

You can do anything with children if you only play with them. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

It is the destiny of the weak to be devoured by the strong. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

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

God always looks after the fools and - and the United States. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

I have only one ambition left: I should like to have a good epitaph. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Laws are like sausages. You sleep far better the less you know about how they are made. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Life has taught me to forgive much, but to seek forgiveness still more. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

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

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

When you want to fool the world, tell the truth. ~ 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

I have often regretted what I have eaten, but never what I have drunk. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

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

Love is blind; friendship tries not to notice. ~ 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

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

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

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

Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others experience. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Lord takes care of babes, fools, and the United States. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Vanity is a mortgage that must be deducted from the value of a man. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

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

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

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 must protest that I would never seek foreign conflicts just to go over domestic difficulties; that would be frivolous. I was speaking of conflicts that we could not avoid, even though we do not seek them. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Crowned heads, wealth and privilege may well tremble should ever again the Black and Red unite!
-after the split between Anarchists and Marxists in 1872 ~ 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

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

If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

A generation that has taken a beating is always followed by a generation that deals one. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

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

The Balkans aren't worth the life of a single Pomeranian grenadier. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

I consider even a victorious war as an evil, from which statesmanship must endeavor to spare nations. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

You can do everything with bayonets, but you are not able to sit on them ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others. ~ 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

Have you ever wondered where the idea of retirement at the age of 65 came from? I'll tell you where: Otto von Bismarck, the president of Prussia, in 1889. Actually, Bismarck's government: At the time, the life expectancy of the average Prussian was about 45. Today, so many are living well into their 80s and 90s that the same promise might well bankrupt the federal government within the next generation. ~ Robert T. Kiyosaki

Never fight with Russian. On your every stratagem they answer unpredictable stupidity. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

A Bavarian is half-way between an Austrian and a human being. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

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

People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

[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

Man cannot control the current of events. he can only float with them and steer ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Politics is the art of the next best. ~ 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

Political judgment is the ability to hear the distant hoofbeats of the horse of history. ~ 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 Bismarck

A bad plan that is well executed will yield much better results than a good plan that is poorly executed. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Fools you are who say you like to learn from your mistakes. I prefer to learn from the mistakes of others, and avoid the cost of my own. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

I have always found the word 'Europe' in the mouths of those politicians who wanted from other powers something they did not dare to demand in their own name. Otto von Bismarck We ~ David Conway

He who has his thumb on the purse has the power. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

The Catholic priest, from the moment he becomes a priest, is a sworn officer of the pope. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

No civilization other than that which is Christian, is worth seeking or possessing. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

The main thing is to make history not to write it ~ Otto Von Bismarck

[Otto von Bismarck] only considered the interests of his own country - always the worst offense that a statesman can commit in the eyes of foreigners. ~ A.J.P. Taylor

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

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

I am bored. The great things are done. The German Reich is made. ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Well for those who will be called upon to serve as soldiers in the ranks of whoever comes to build the new world. June, 1919. ~ Ottokar Theobald Otto Maria Czernin Von Und Zu Chudenitz

Love is an excellent thing and a very great blessing, indeed. It makes every difficulty easy. It bears a burden without being weighted, and renders sweet all that is bitter. Love knows no limits, feels no burden, thinks nothing of troubles, attempts more than it is able, because it believes that it may and can do all things; for this reason it is able to do all, performing much where he who does not love fails and falls. Love is watchful. Sleeping, it does not slumber. Like a living flame, a burning torch, it tends upward and passes unharmed through every obstacle. Whatever faults may be committed, big or small, whatever clouds may pile up on the horizon, dark and threatening, love will overcome all. ~ Maria Augusta Von Trapp

You have reckoned that history ought to judge the past and to instruct the contemporary world as to the future. The present attempt does not yield to that high office. It will merely tell how it really was. ~ Leopold Von Ranke

The mark of the creative mind is that it defies a part of what it has learned. ~ Ludwig Von Mises

We can no longer completely avoid anthropogenic climate change. At best, limiting the temperature rise to two degrees is just about possible, according to optimistic estimates. That's why we should spend more time talking about adjusting to the inevitable and not about reducing CO2 emissions. We have to take away people's fear of climate change. ~ Hans Von Storch

Silence, nothing is better. ~ Diane Von Furstenberg

Dark times have come, but in spite of this we have not yet reached a twilight of the gods and even today we have no reason for doubt-filled pessimism, for the Wihinei of the Aryo-Germanics is too deep - even if unconscious and latent - rooted in every Aryo-Germanic soul and it awaits onl the call to awaken which will and must catch fire in order to instill the flame of inspiration in the Aryo-Germanic sensibility ... ~ Guido Von List

Once the principle is admitted that it is the duty of the government to protect the individual against his own foolishness, no serious objections can be advanced against further encroachments. ~ Ludwig Von Mises

My dear Excellency! I have not gone to war to collect cheese and eggs, but for another purpose. ~ Manfred Von Richthofen

Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

One should not wish anyone disagreeable conditions of life; but for him who is involved in them by chance, they are touchstones of characters and of the most decisive value to man. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Who never ate his bread in sorrow, Who never spent the darksome hours Weeping, and watching for the morrow,- He knows you not, ye heavenly Powers. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe