Bismarck

God has a special providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America.

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

Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death.

Life is like being at the dentist. You always think the worst is still to come, and it is over already.

Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.

I have only one ambition left: I should like to have a good epitaph.

Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.

Faust complained about having two souls in his breast, but I harbor a whole crowd of them and they quarrel. It is like being in a republic.

In my politics, I may be attacked, but I only laugh about it. But when it comes to hunting, that's where the fun stops, that's where it gets serious.

There is so much having to do in my life that I rarely get to want to do.

Let's put Germany, so to speak, in the saddle! It will be able to ride.

With a gentleman, I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud, I try to be a fraud and a half.

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

A statesman cannot create anything, he must wait and listen until he hears the footsteps of God sounding through events, and then spring and seize the hem of His garment.

The great questions of the day will not be decided by speeches and majority resolutions—that was the great mistake of 1848 and 1849—but by iron and blood.

I have often regretted that I have spoken, never that I have been silent.

Man cannot create the current of events. He can only float with it and steer.

The less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they'll sleep at night.

The main thing is to make an alliance with Russia.

Faust complained about having two souls in his breast, but I harbor a whole legion.