Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be decided...but by iron and blood. - Otto von Bismarck

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

It was not then possible to forecast with certainty whether and how long the Czar's friendship would remain a realisable political asset. In any case, however, simple common sense enjoined us not to let it fall into the possession of our enemies, whom we might discern in the Poles, the philo-Polish Russians, and, ultimately, probably in the French.

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.