Quotes About Bismarck

Like Prince von Bismarck in diplomacy, I have no secrets.

Otto von Bismarck] only considered the interests of his own country - always the worst offense that a statesman can commit in the eyes of foreigners.

Bismarck fought 'necessary' wars and killed thousands, the idealists of the twentieth century fight 'just' wars and kill millions.

When Leopold wrote that the precise frontiers of the new state or states would be defined later, [German Chancellor] Bismarck said to an aide, "His Majesty displays the pretensions and naive selfishness of an Italian who considers that his charm and good looks will enable him to get away with anything.

Some, indeed, referred to Bismarck's creation as the 'Second Reich'. The use of the word implied, too, that where the First Reich had failed, in the face of French aggression, the Second had succeeded.

I have always been a pupil of the great Bismarck, in that it is far better to try to anticipate and alter events rather than simply react to them.

The statesman's task is to hear God's footsteps marching through history, and to try and catch on to His coattails as He marches past.

Por várias vezes, pensei que aquele círculo medíocre se reunia no mesmo lugar em que Bismarck costumava conversar com os amigos, conhecidos e companheiros políticos.

Nor were there many nation-builders like him in his day: Bismarck, Giuseppe Garibaldi and Simón Bolívar. His achievement may have been the more demanding because none of the others had to create a country out of a crazy quilt.

As Bismarck once said, "Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others' experience.

Suddenly his face twisted into a sneer. 'Oh, I can see what you're thinking, Hartmann. "What a vulgar fellow! A car salesman! And now he fancies himself as a second Bismarck!" But we have done something your kind never managed. We have made Germany great again.' 'Actually,' said Hartmann mildly, 'I was thinking you have egg on your chin.

Have you ever wondered where the idea of retirement at the age of 65 came from? I'll tell you where: Otto von Bismarck, the president of Prussia, in 1889. Actually, Bismarck's government: At the time, the life expectancy of the average Prussian was about 45. Today, so many are living well into their 80s and 90s that the same promise might well bankrupt the federal government within the next generation.

Here's the solution. We need a CO2 tax, revenue-neutral, to replace taxation on employment, which was invented by Bismarck — and some things have changed since the 19th Century.

In the early days of his reign, Bismarck confided to a friend that it would some day be necessary for Germany to confine William II in an insane asylum.

The system proved successful … pretty soon they were mass-producing heroes, and in the end, the system was so well perfected that they cost practically nothing. Everyone was delighted. Bismarck, the two Napoleons, Barres,* Elsa the Horsewoman.* The religion of the flag promptly replaced the cult of heaven

Bismarck once said, 'Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death.

Bismarck's aphorism throws a different and more encouraging light on the problem. It helps us to realize that there are two forms of practical experience, direct and indirect and that, of the two, indirect practical experience may be the more valuable because infinitely wider.

Why are you so afraid of the word 'Fascism,' Doremus? Just a word—just a word! And might not be so bad, with all the lazy bums we got panhandling relief nowadays, and living on my income tax and yours—not so worse to have a real Strong Man, like Hitler or Mussolini—like Napoleon or Bismarck in the good old days—and have 'em really run the country and make it efficient and prosperous again.

SOME DAMNED FOOLISH THING in the Balkans," Bismarck had predicted, would ignite the next war. The assassination of the Austrian heir apparent, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by Serbian nationalists on June 28, 1914, satisfied his condition.

Bismarck has broken the nation's backbone," he wrote in 1886. "The injury done by the Bismarck era is infinitely greater than its benefits.… The subjugation of the German personality, of the German mind, was a misfortune that cannot be undone.

Lincoln is properly remembered as a champion of democracy, but there was a good bit of Otto von Bismarck in him as well.

How curious that such an outsize man, in physique as well as personality, should be remembered today mainly for giving his name to a small fish. For the 19th century, Bismarck was no herring but a leviathan. Between 1862 and 1890, he created Germany, seeing off first the Austrian empire and then France.

From the perspective of Bismarck, conditioned as he was by power politics, all that the new empire required was "the biggest possible army, a military commander, a guiding hand, enough money, and that's it.

We should remember what Bismarck said in 1888: "If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans." Balkan