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Otto von Bismarck Quotes
1815–1898 Germany
Prince Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg (1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), was a German aristocrat and statesman; he was Minister President of Prussia (1862–1890), and the first Chancellor of Germany (1871–1890). Nicknamed the Iron Chancellor, he is noted for his laconic remarks.
Germany Military leaders Non-fiction authors Also known as: Bismarck, Otto von Bismark, Prince Bismarck, Bismark
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Preventive war is like committing suicide for fear of death.
Politics is the art of the possible.
A statesman cannot create anything himself. He must wait and listen until he hears the steps of God sounding through events; then leap up and grasp the hem of His garment.
We Germans fear God, but nothing else in the world; and it is the fear of God, which lets us love and foster peace.
I am accustomed to pay men back in their own coin.
To the Ultramontanes (1870)
A conquering army on the border will not be stopped by eloquence.
Be assured, we shall not go to Canossa, either bodily or spiritually.
The politician has not to revenge what has happened but to ensure that it does not happen again.
Every state must be aware that its peace, its security rests on its own sword.
When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.
Let them stew in their own grease (or juice).
I have never judged international disputes by the standards which prevail at a student's duel.
He who has his thumb on the purse has the power.
The social insecurity of the worker is the real cause of their being a peril to the state.
No work of art is worth the bones of a Pomeranian Grenadier.
possibly a phrase of Frederick the Great. In Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)
I have always found the word Europe on the lips of those politicians who wanted something from other Powers which they dared not demand in their own names.
Struggle is everywhere, without struggle no life, and if we want to go on living, we must be ready for further struggles.
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.
Politics is not an exact science.
In the domain of political economy the abstract doctrines of science leave me perfectly cold, my only standard of judgment being experience.
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