Quote#Wisdom
I must protest that I would never seek foreign conflicts just to go…
Quote byOtto von Bismarck · 1815–1898
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: 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..
English (original)
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
More from Otto von Bismarck
A conquering army on the border will not be stopped by eloquence.
The politician has not to revenge what has happened but to ensure that it does not happen again.
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 social insecurity of the worker is the real cause of their being a peril to the state.
Setzen wir Deutschland, so zu sagen, in den Sattel! Reiten wird es schon können.
I see in the whole no interest for Germany which would be worth even [...] the healthy bones of a single Pomeranian musketeer. Speech to the Reichstag 5 December 1876