Otto von Bismarck > Quotes

“Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“God has a special providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans (1888).”
― Otto von Bismarck

“People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“When you want to fool the world, tell the truth. ”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“It is the destiny of the weak to be devoured by the strong.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia.”
― 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

“man cannot control the current of events. he can only float with them and steer”
― 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

“Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others experience.”
― 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

“Hounds follow those who feed them.”
― 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

“the main thing is to make history not to write it”
― 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

“People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“الحياة أشبه بالتواجد عند طبيب الأسنان. فأنت تعتقد دائما أن الأسوأ هو الذي لا يزال في طريقه إليك، رغم أنه يكون قد انتهى بالفعل.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Politics ruins the character”
― Otto von Bismarck

“I have a burden on my soul. During my long life, I did not make anyone happy, neither my friends, nor my family, nor even myself. I have done many evil things...I was the cause of the beginning of three big wars. About 800,000 people were killed because of me on the battlefields., and their mothers, brothers, and widows cried for them. And now this stands between me and God.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“We live in a wondrous time, in which the strong is weak because of his scruples and the weak grows strong because of his audacity.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Life is like being at the dentist. You always think that the worst is still to come, and yet it is over already.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“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.”
― 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