Otto Von Bismarck

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

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

With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I try to be a fraud and a half.

Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best

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

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

The less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they'll sleep at night

God has a special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States of America.

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.

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.

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

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

Politics is the art of the next best.

When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.

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

What we learn from History is that no one learns from History

A statesman... must wait until he hears the steps of God sounding through events, then leap up and grasp the hem of His garment.

All treaties between great states cease to be binding when they come in conflict with the struggle for existence.

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

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.

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