Stollen from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bismarck the most relevant ones in 2007 are, imho :
SOURCED
[…] I would never seek foreign conflicts just to get over domestic difficulties; that would be frivolous.[…]
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A conquering army on the border will not be stopped by eloquence.
Speech to North German Reichstag (24 September 1867)
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He who has his thumb on the purse has the power.
Speech to North German Reichstag (21 May 1869)
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Give the working-man the right to work as long as he is healthy; assure him care when he is sick; assure him maintenance when he is old.
Speech to the Reichstag (1862)
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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. Politics is not an exact science . . . but an art.
Speech (15 March 1884)
Politics is the art of the possible.
remark, Aug. 11, 1867
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God has a special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States of America.
Quoted in Walter Russell Mead, "Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How it Changed the World" (2002). pg vii Unsourced
There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America.
variant
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Ich bin gewöhnt in der Münze wiederzuzahlen in der man mich bezahlt.
I am accustomed to pay men back in their own coin.
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UNSOURCED
A government must not waiver once it has chosen its course. It must not look to the left or right but go forward.
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Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.
A really great man is known by three signs— generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success.
The three signs of great men are— generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success.
Variant
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A statesman... must wait until he hears the steps of God sounding through events, then leap up and grasp the hem of His garment.
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Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war.
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Beware of sentimental alliances where the consciousness of good deeds is the only compensation for noble sacrifices.
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I have always found the word "Europe" in the mouths of those politicians who wanted from other powers something they did not dare to demand in their own name.
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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.
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Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.
Never believe in anything until it has been officially denied.
Variant
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People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.
People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, and before an election.
Variant
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The main thing is to make history, not to write it.
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What we learn from history is that no one learns from history.
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The whole of the Balkans is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier.
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When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of putting it into practice.
When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.
When you say you agree to a thing in principle you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.
Variants
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When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.
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With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I try to be a fraud and a half.
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MISATTRIBUTED
Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.
To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.
If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.
Variants
What Bismarck really said was
"Je weniger die Leute darüber wissen, wie Würste und Gesetze gemacht werden, desto besser schlafen sie nachts."
"The lesser the people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they sleep in the night".
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