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's 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