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
Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.
Great men have great dogs.
He obtained from Congress the right to borrow from the people by selling to it the 'bonds' of States ... and the Government and the nation escaped the plots of the foreign financiers. They understood at once, that the United States would escape their grip. The death of Lincoln was resolved upon.
Fools you are who say you like to learn from your mistakes. I prefer to learn from the mistakes of others, and avoid the cost of my own.
I have always found the word 'Europe' on the lips of those who wanted something from others which they dared not demand in their own names!
The main thing is to make history, not to write it.
God has a special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States of America.
The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia.
The position of Prussia in Germany will not be determined by its liberalism but by its power ... Prussia must concentrate its strength and hold it for the favorable moment, which has already come and gone several times. Since the treaties of Vienna, our frontiers have been ill-designed for a healthy body politic. Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be decided - that was the great mistake of 1848 and 1849 - but by iron and blood (Eisen und Blut).
The death of Lincoln was a disaster for Christendom. There was no man in the United States great enough to wear his boots and the bankers went anew to grab the riches. I fear that foreign bankers with their craftiness and tortuous tricks will entirely control the exuberant riches of America and use it to systematically corrupt civilization.
We live in a wondrous time in which the strong is weak because of his moral scruples and the weak grows strong because of his audacity.
The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood.
One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans (1888).
The Americans are a very lucky people. They're bordered to the north and south by weak neighbors, and to the east and west by fish.