A bad plan that is well executed will yield much better results than a good plan that is poorly executed.

Lord takes care of babes, fools, and the United States.

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.

Woe to the leader whose arguments at the end of a war are not as plausible as they were at the beginning.

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.

The position of Prussia in Germany will not be determined by its liberalism but by its power.

The life of a man is like a game of chess, which he plays according to his art.

Physicians still retain something of their priestly origin; they would gladly do what they forbid.

To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.

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.

There are two things civilized Man should never see being made: Sausages and Laws.

Let us put Germany, so to speak, in the saddle! you will see that she can ride.

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.

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.

I consider even a victorious war as an evil, from which statesmanship must endeavor to spare nations.

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.

Universal suffrage is the government of a house by its nursery.

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.

Nothing should be left to an invaded people except their eyes for weeping.

I have found that nothing so deceives your adversaries as telling them the truth.

Politics ruins the character.

War should only be used for a policy worth its sacrifices.

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.

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!

We are better off not knowing how sausages and laws are made.

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.

I am bored. The great things are done. The German Reich is made.

You can do everything with bayonets, but you are not able to sit on them.

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.

People who love sausage and people who believe in justice should never watch either of them being made.

The most significant event of the 20th century will be the fact that the North Americans speak English.

A generation that has taken a beating is always followed by a generation that deals one.

I have often regretted what I have eaten, but never what I have drunk.

Laws are like medicine; they generally cure an evil by a lesser or a passing evil.

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

We Germans fear God, but nothing else in the world.

The Catholic priest, from the moment he becomes a priest, is a sworn officer of the pope.

A government must not waiver once it has chosen its course. It must not look to the left or right but go forward.

The nation that has the schools has the future.

I am accustomed to pay men back in their own coin.

All treaties between great states cease to be binding when they come in conflict with the struggle for existence.

Hounds follow those who feed them.

You can do anything with children if you only play with them.

I have wished to crush Rome that I might crush Christianity.

Show me an objective worthy of war and I will go along with you.

Politics is no exact science.

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.

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.

My subject is my life, and my life is my subject.

Politics is not a science, as the professors are apt to suppose. It is an art.

Better pointed bullets than pointed words.

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.

God always looks after the fools and – and the United States.

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.

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

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

He who has his thumb on the purse has the power.

Life has taught me to forgive much, but to seek forgiveness still more.

The luxury of one’s own opinion.

Love is blind; friendship tries not to notice.

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

A little caution outflanks a large cavalry.

Beware of sentimental alliances where the consciousness of good deeds is the only compensation for noble sacrifices.

A really great man is known by three signs: generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success.

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

A conquering army on the border will not be stopped by eloquence.

No civilization other than that which is Christian, is worth seeking or possessing

Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war.

This policy cannot succeed through speeches, and shooting-matches, and songs; it can only be carried out through blood and iron.

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.

Vanity is a mortgage that must be deducted from the value of a man.

A Bavarian is half-way between an Austrian and a human being.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Great men have great dogs.

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

What we learn from History is that no one learns from History.

It is the destiny of the weak to be devoured by the strong.

The Balkans arent worth the life of a single Pomeranian grenadier.

You can’t destroy the polish national-consciousness or Poles on the battlefield, but if you give them power, they will destroy themselves.

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

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

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.

Never fight with Russian. On your every stratagem they answer unpredictable stupidity.

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

Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.

Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.