Quote#Truth
They treat me like a fox, a cunning fellow (Schlaukopf) of the first…
Quote byOtto von Bismarck · 1815–1898
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Talking to Gyula Andrássy in Salzburg on 18 September 1877. As quoted in Disraeli, Gladstone, and the Eastern Question. A Study in Diplomacy and Party Politics (1935) by Robert William Seton-Watson, p. 224 books.google; "Schlaukopf" is translated elsewhere as "clever dick" or "smart aleck.".
English (original)
They treat me like a fox, a cunning fellow (Schlaukopf) of the first rank. But the truth is that with a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and when I have to do with a pirate, I try to be a pirate and a half.
— Otto von Bismarck
More from Otto von Bismarck
A conquering army on the border will not be stopped by eloquence.
Setzen wir Deutschland, so zu sagen, in den Sattel! Reiten wird es schon können.
The social insecurity of the worker is the real cause of their being a peril to the state.
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.
I grant that I am full of prejudices; I sucked them in with my mother's milk, and I cannot possibly argue them away.
The politician has not to revenge what has happened but to ensure that it does not happen again.