Otto von Bismarck Quotes

Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.

Let us lift Germany, so to speak, into the saddle. Surely when that is achieved, it will succeed at riding as well.

Every state must be aware that its peace, its security rests on its own sword.

The greatest burden for the working class is uncertainty of life. They can never be certain that they will have a job, or that they will have heal and the ability to work. We cannot protect a man from all sickness and misfortune. - 73

Even in 1864 it certainly cost us much trouble to loosen the threads by which the King, with the co-operation of the Liberalising influence of his consort, remained attached to that camp. Without having investigated the complicated legal questions of the succession, he stuck to his motto: “I have no right to Holstein.” ... At that time, however, the acquisition of the duchies by Prussia was regarded as an act of profligacy by all those who, since 1848, had set up to play the part of representatives of national views. My respect for so-called public opinion—or, in other words, the clamour of orators and newspapers—has never been very great, but was still further materially lowered as regards foreign policy in the two cases compared above. How strangely, up to this time, the King's way of looking at things was impregnated with vagabond Liberalism through the influence of his consort and of the pushing Bethmann-Hollweg clique.

The life of a man is like a game of chess, which he plays according to his art.

Struggle is everywhere, without struggle no life, and if we want to go on living, we must be ready for further struggles.

Austria was no more in the wrong in opposing our claims than we were in making them.

An appeal to fear never finds an echo in German hearts.

Ludzie najbardziej kłamią: po polowaniu, w czasie wojny i przed wyborami.

Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death.

We Germans fear God, but nothing else in the world; and it is the fear of God, which lets us love and foster peace.

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

Only a country's most vital interests justify its embarking on war. ... Aye, I made the war of 1866, fulfilling my harsh duty with a heavy heart, because without it the nation would have bogged down politically, soon to fall prey to avaricious neighbors; and if we stood in the same place where then we stood, I should resolutely make war again. Never, you may be sure, shall I counsel His Majesty to wage war unless the innermost interests of the fatherland request it.

I will further every endeavour which positively aims at improving the condition of the working classes. ... As soon as a positive proposal came from the Socialists for fashioning the future in a sensible way, in order that the lot of the working-man might be improved, I would not at any rate refuse to examine it favourably, and I would not even shrink from the idea of State help for the people who would help themselves.