Otto von Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg, known as Otto von Bismarck, was a conservative Prussian statesman who dominated German and European affairs from the 1860s until 1890. In the 1860s he engineered a series of wars that unified the German states, significantly and deliberately excluding Austria, into a powerful German Empire under Prussian leadership. With that accomplished by 1871 he skillfully used balance of power diplomacy to preserve German hegemony in a Europe which, despite many disputes...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth1 April 1815
CitySchonhausen, Germany
CountryGermany
Revolutions in Prussia are started by kings, and since it is a revolution, it is better to start it ourselves than to suffer of it
With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I try to be a fraud and a half.
Laws are like sausages. You sleep far better the less you know about how they are made.
Let us put Germany, so to speak, in the saddle! you will see that she can ride.
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.
A little caution outflanks a large cavalry.
A conquering army on the border will not be stopped by eloquence.
I have found that nothing so deceives your adversaries as telling them the truth.
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.
A really great man is known by three signs: generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success.
When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.
Our German forefathers had a very kind religion. They believed that, after death, they would meet again all the good dogs that had been their companions in life. I wish I could believe that too.
Laws are like medicine; they generally cure an evil by a lesser or a passing evil.
Even the most favorable outcome of the war will never lead to the decomposition of the main forces of Russia, which is based on millions of Russian ... The latter, even if they break up international treaties, just as quickly re-connect with each other, like pieces of a particle of mercury ...