Quotes by Otto von Bismarck

“the main thing is to make history not to write it”

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

“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”

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

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

“Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others experience.”

“Political judgment is the ability to hear the distant hoofbeats of the horse of history.”

“man cannot control the current of events. he can only float with them and steer”

“Hounds follow those who feed them.”

“Woe to the leader whose arguments at the end of a war are not as plausible as they were at the beginning.”

“Crowned heads, wealth and privilege may well tremble should ever again the Black and Red unite!"-after the split between Anarchists and Marxists in 1872”

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

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

“Politics ruins the character.”

“Politics is the art of the possible.”

“A government must not waiver once it has chosen it's course. It must not look to the left or right but go forward.”