Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg, known as Otto von Bismarck, (1815–98) 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 and war scares, remained at peace. For historian Eric Hobsbawm, it was Bismarck who “remained undisputed world champion at the game of multilateral diplomatic chess for almost twenty years after 1871, devoted himself exclusively, and successfully, to maintaining peace between the powers.”
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Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: War
When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Truth
People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Deception/Lying
Laws are like sausages. It is better not to see them being made.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Government, Lawyers
A journalist is a person who has mistaken their calling.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Journalism
Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable…the art of the next best.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Politics, Politicians
With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I try to be a fraud and a half.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Manners, Behavior
Better pointed bullets than pointed speeches.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Speech, Conversation
I have seen three emperors in their nakedness, and the sight was not inspiring.
—Otto von Bismarck
People who love sausage and people who believe in justice should never watch either of them being made.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Justice
When you say that you agree to a thing in principle you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Hypocrisy
Politics is not an exact science.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Politics, Politicians
When a man says that he approves something in principal, it means he hasn’t the slightest intention of putting it in practice.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Business, Negotiation
No, a fool learns from experience. A wise man learns from the experience of others.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Learning
A government must not waiver once it has chosen it’s course. It must not look to the left or right but go forward.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Government
A really great man is known by three signs — generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Greatness, Anger
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.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Strength
Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Diplomacy
An appeal to fear never finds an echo in German hearts.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Fear
The main thing is to make history, not to write it.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: History
Never believe in anything until it has been officially denied.
—Otto von Bismarck
Topics: Advice, Belief
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