Quotes by Otto von Bismarck

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

“Politics ruins the character.”

“When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.”

“Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.”

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

“The less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better theyll sleep at night”

“There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America.”

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

“The main thing is to make history, not to write it.”

“The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood.”

“When you say you agree to a thing in principle you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.”

“If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans”

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

The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood

the main thing is to make history not to write it

Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.

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.

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

[Government]is cancerous in head and limbs;only its belly is sound, and the laws it excretes are the most strightforward shit in the world.

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