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I am firmly convinced that Spain is the strongest country of the world. Century after century trying to destroy herself and still no success

— Otto von Bismarck Misattributed

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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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We spend our lives fighting to get people very slightly more stupid than ourselves to accept truths that the great men have always known.

Doris Lessing The Golden Notebook (1962)

To rank the effort above the prize may be called love.

Confucius

Greatness by nature includes a power, but not a will to power.

Martin Buber Between Man and Man (1965)

The weak shows his strength and hides his weaknesses; the magnificent exhibits his weaknesses like ornaments.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

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.