Otto von Bismarck

"Politics is the art of the possible"

"When you want to fool the world, tell the truth"

"I have always been a Republican, but I was not born in a Republic"

"The great questions of the day will not be decided by speeches and majority decisions, but by iron and blood"

"A lick from a cow is better than a kick from a horse"

"The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine"

"When a man says he approves in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of doing it"

"I am now become Death, the destroyer of worlds"

"Preventive war is like committing suicide from fear of death"

"Politics ruins the character"

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

"If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made"

"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but playing a poor hand well"

"The things which the world has not yet learned from me, it will not want to know for generations yet"

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

"You can do anything with bayonets except sit on them"

"Fools say they learn by experience; I prefer to profit by others' experience"

"An honest man can feel no pleasure in eating and sleeping on an idle income"

"Diplomacy is the art of telling plain truths in such a way that people do not get angry"

"I have never believed that one can build a great and lasting power on such a base as military despotism"

"The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia"

"I would rather perish than yield"

"The main thing is to make history, not to write it"

"With great power comes great responsibility"

"Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made"

"Sovereignty is not negotiable"

"The things we fear most are usually the things that will help us grow the most"

"When you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again"

"A serious cabinet ought to present opinions of different characters"

"I am the German language"