Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg was a Prussian and later German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of Junker landowners, Bismarck rose rapidly in Prussian politics, and from 1862 to 1890 he was the minister president and foreign minister of Prussia.

Otto von Bismarck Quotes

1. “Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.”
— Otto von Bismarck

2. “A bad plan that is well executed will yield much better results than a good plan that is poorly executed.”
— Otto von Bismarck

3. “History is simply a piece of paper covered with print: the main thing is to make history, not to write it.”
— Otto von Bismarck

4. “Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.”
— Otto von Bismarck

5. “When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.”
— Otto von Bismarck

6. “Never fight with Russian. On your every stratagem they answer unpredictable stupidity.”
— Otto von Bismarck

7. “God has a special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States of America.”
— Otto von Bismarck

8. “With bad laws and good civil servants it’s still possible to govern. But with bad civil servants even the best laws can’t help.”
— Otto von Bismarck

9. “Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.”
— Otto von Bismarck

10. “You can’t destroy the polish national-consciousness or Poles on the battlefield, but if you give them power, they will destroy themselves.”
— Otto von Bismarck

11. “The Balkans arent worth the life of a single Pomeranian grenadier.”
— Otto von Bismarck

12. “It is the destiny of the weak to be devoured by the strong.”
— Otto von Bismarck

13. “What we learn from History is that no one learns from History.”
— Otto von Bismarck

14. “Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable – the art of the next best.”
— Otto von Bismarck

15. “Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death.”
— Otto von Bismarck

16. “Great men have great dogs.”
— Otto von Bismarck

17. “People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt.”
— Otto von Bismarck

18. “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.”
— Otto von Bismarck

19. “Fools you are who say you like to learn from your mistakes. I prefer to learn from the mistakes of others, and avoid the cost of my own.”
— Otto von Bismarck

20. “Life is like being at the dentist. You always think the worst is still to come, and it is over already.”
— Otto von Bismarck

21. “The Americans are a very lucky people. They’re bordered to the north and south by weak neighbors, and to the east and west by fish.”
— Otto von Bismarck

22. “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.”
— Otto von Bismarck

23. “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.”
— Otto von Bismarck

24. “A Bavarian is half-way between an Austrian and a human being.”
— Otto von Bismarck

25. “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

26. “Vanity is a mortgage that must be deducted from the value of a man.”
— Otto von Bismarck

27. “This policy cannot succeed through speeches, and shooting-matches, and songs; it can only be carried out through blood and iron.”
— Otto von Bismarck

28. “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

29. “No civilization other than that which is Christian, is worth seeking or possessing.”
— Otto von Bismarck

30. “A conquering army on the border will not be stopped by eloquence.”
— Otto von Bismarck

31. “I have only one ambition left: I should like to have a good epitaph.”
— Otto von Bismarck

32. “The less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they’ll sleep at night.”
— Otto von Bismarck

33. “A really great man is known by three signs: generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success.”
— Otto von Bismarck

34. “Beware of sentimental alliances where the consciousness of good deeds is the only compensation for noble sacrifices.”
— Otto von Bismarck

35. “A little caution outflanks a large cavalry.”
— Otto von Bismarck

36. “Love is blind; friendship tries not to notice.”
— Otto von Bismarck

37. “The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia.”
— Otto von Bismarck

38. “Our German forefathers had a very kind religion. They believed that, after death, they would meet again all the good dogs that had been their companions in life. I wish I could believe that too.”
— Otto von Bismarck

39. “The luxury of one’s own opinion.”
— Otto von Bismarck

40. “He who has his thumb on the purse has the power.”
— Otto von Bismarck

41. “Life has taught me to forgive much, but to seek forgiveness still more.”
— Otto von Bismarck

42. “The main thing is to make history, not to write it.”
— Otto von Bismarck

43. “God always looks after the fools and – and the United States.”
— Otto von Bismarck

44. “Earthly majesty is always akin to the fallen angel, who is proud and unhappy, beautiful but troubled, and whose plans and efforts, though vast, are denied access.”
— Otto von Bismarck

45. “Better pointed bullets than pointed words.”
— Otto von Bismarck

46. “Politics is not a science, as the professors are apt to suppose. It is an art.”
— Otto von Bismarck

47. “My subject is my life, and my life is my subject.”
— Otto von Bismarck

48. “Not by speeches and votes of the majority, are the great questions of the time decided – that was the error of 1848 and 1849 – but by iron and blood.”
— Otto von Bismarck

49. “I have never lived on principles. When I have had to act, I never first asked myself on what principles I was going to act, but I went at it and did what I thought fit. I have often reproached myself for my want of principle.”
— Otto von Bismarck

50. “Politics is no exact science.”
— Otto von Bismarck

51. “Show me an objective worthy of war and I will go along with you.”
— Otto von Bismarck

52. “I have wished to crush Rome that I might crush Christianity.”
— Otto von Bismarck

53. “Hounds follow those who feed them.”
— Otto von Bismarck

54. “You can do anything with children if you only play with them.”
— Otto von Bismarck

55. “I am accustomed to pay men back in their own coin.”
— Otto von Bismarck

56. “The nation that has the schools has the future.”
— Otto von Bismarck

57. “All treaties between great states cease to be binding when they come in conflict with the struggle for existence.”
— Otto von Bismarck

58. “A government must not waiver once it has chosen its course. It must not look to the left or right but go forward.”
— Otto von Bismarck

59. “The Catholic priest, from the moment he becomes a priest, is a sworn officer of the pope.”
— Otto von Bismarck

60. “We Germans fear God, but nothing else in the world.”
— Otto von Bismarck

61. “People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.”
— Otto von Bismarck

62. “Laws are like medicine; they generally cure an evil by a lesser or a passing evil.”
— Otto von Bismarck

63. “I have often regretted what I have eaten, but never what I have drunk.”
— Otto von Bismarck

64. “A generation that has taken a beating is always followed by a generation that deals one.”
— Otto von Bismarck

65. “The most significant event of the 20th century will be the fact that the North Americans speak English.”
— Otto von Bismarck

66. “People who love sausage and people who believe in justice should never watch either of them being made.”
— Otto von Bismarck

67. “Revolutions in Prussia are started by kings, and since it is a revolution, it is better to start it ourselves than to suffer of it.”
— Otto von Bismarck

68. “You can do everything with bayonets, but you are not able to sit on them.”
— Otto von Bismarck

69. “I am bored. The great things are done. The German Reich is made.”
— Otto von Bismarck

70. “There is only one greater folly than that of the fool who says in his heart there is no God, and that is the folly of the people that says with its head that it does not know whether there is a God or not.”
— Otto von Bismarck

71. “We are better off not knowing how sausages and laws are made.”
— Otto von Bismarck

72. “I have always found the word ‘Europe’ on the lips of those who wanted something from others which they dared not demand in their own names!”
— Otto von Bismarck

73. “One can put some trust in the gratitude of a sovereign, and also in that of his family; under certain conditions, one can even rely upon it; but one can never expect anything from the gratitude of a nation.”
— Otto von Bismarck

74. “Politics ruins the character.”
— Otto von Bismarck

75. “War should only be used for a policy worth its sacrifices.”
— Otto von Bismarck

76. “I have found that nothing so deceives your adversaries as telling them the truth.”
— Otto von Bismarck

77. “Nothing should be left to an invaded people except their eyes for weeping.”
— Otto von Bismarck

78. “In England the more horses a nobleman has, the more popular he is. So long as the English are devoted to racing, Socialism has no chance with you.”
— Otto von Bismarck

79. “Universal suffrage is the government of a house by its nursery.”
— Otto von Bismarck

80. “Not even the King himself has the right to subordinate the interests of his country to his own feelings of love or hatred towards strangers; he is, however, responsible towards God and not to me if he does so, and therefore on this point I am silent.”
— Otto von Bismarck

81. “I consider even a victorious war as an evil, from which statesmanship must endeavor to spare nations.”
— Otto von Bismarck

82. “That which is imposing here on earth has always something of the quality of the fallen angel who is beautiful but without peace, great in his conceptions and exertions but without succes, proud and lonely.”
— Otto von Bismarck

83. “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.”
— Otto von Bismarck

84. “There are two things civilized Man should never see being made: Sausages and Laws.”
— Otto von Bismarck

85. “Let us put Germany, so to speak, in the saddle! you will see that she can ride.”
— Otto von Bismarck

86. “I must protest that I would never seek foreign conflicts just to go over domestic difficulties; that would be frivolous. I was speaking of conflicts that we could not avoid, even though we do not seek them.”
— Otto von Bismarck

87. “To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.”
— Otto von Bismarck

88. “Physicians still retain something of their priestly origin; they would gladly do what they forbid.”
— Otto von Bismarck

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

90. “The life of a man is like a game of chess, which he plays according to his art.”
— Otto von Bismarck

91. “Nur ein Idiot glaubt, aus eigenen Erfahrungen zu lernen. Ich ziehe es vor, aus den Erfahrungen anderer zu lernen, um von vorneherein eigene Fehler zu vermeiden.”
— Otto von Bismarck

92. “Lord takes care of babes, fools, and the United States.”
— Otto von Bismarck

93. “The position of Prussia in Germany will not be determined by its liberalism but by its power…”
— Otto von Bismarck

94. “If this political business teaches you one thing, it is that you can be as wise as the wise men of this world, and yet you always wander into the next minute like a child into the dark.”
— Otto von Bismarck