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Politics is not an exact science.

— Otto von Bismarck

Die Politik ist keine exakte Wissenschaft.

Original text (German)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Politics is not a science, as the professors are apt to suppose. It is an art. | Expression in the Reichstag (1884), as quoted in The Quote Verifier : Who Said What, Where, and When (2006) by Ralph Keyes

Variants

Die Politik ist keine Wissenschaft, wie viele der Herren Proffessoren sich einbilden, sondern eine Kunst.

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Politics

More quotes by Otto von Bismarck

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)

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Theodor Adorno The Authoritarian Personality (1950)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Otto von Bismarck (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.