Quotes from Frederick The Great

Rascals, would you live forever?

An educated people can be easily governed.

By push of bayonets, no firing till you see the whites of their eyes.

For every state, from the smallest to the largest, the principle of enlargement is the fundamental law of life.

Politics consists more in profiting from favorable circumstances than preparing them in advance.

God is always with the strongest battalions.

Diplomacy without arms is like music without instruments.

The greatest and noblest pleasure which men can have in this world is to discover new truths; and the next is to shake off old prejudices.

Don't forget your great guns, which are the most respectable arguments of the rights of kings.

I love an opposition that has convictions.

Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer, and the King does not believe that coffee-drinking soldiers can be relied upon to endure hardships in case of another war.

God is always with the strongest battalions.

It is the fashion these days to make war, and presumably it will last a while yet.

If soldiers were to begin to think, not one of them would remain in the army.

It is impossible to imitate Voltaire without being Voltaire.

Every man must get to heaven his own way.

All religions must be tolerated ... every man must go to heaven in his own way. [Die Religionen müssen alle toleriert werden ... denn hier muss ein jeder nach seiner Fasson selig werden.]

The more I see of men, the better I like my dog.

A man, who can, in cold blood, hunt and torture a poor, innocent animal, cannot feel much compassion for the distress of his own species.

A man with his heart in his profession imagines and finds resources where the worthless and lazy despair.

Man is made for error; it enters his mind naturally, and he discovers a few truths only with the greatest effort.

Religion is the idol of the mob; it adores everything it does not understand.

He who defends everything defends nothing.

Our work is to present things that are as they are.