Historical Quotes

[dracosean]

some quotes by Frederick the great and Bismarck
qoutes by Frederick the great

"The monarch is a perpetual sentinel, who must watch...enemies of the state...it is not that he should remain the shadow of authority, but that he should fulfill [his] duties."

"I am the first servant of my state."

"Ich bin der erste Diener meines Staates."
"All Religions are equal and good, if only the people that practise them are honest people; and if Turks and heathens came and wanted to live here in this country, we would build them mosques and churches."

"Alle Religionen sind gleich und gut, wenn nur die Leute, so sie profesieren, ehrliche Leute sind; und wenn Türken und Heiden kämen und wollten das Lande pöpulieren, so wollen wir ihnen Moscheen und Kirchen bauen."

1740 note on a question whether a Catholic was allowed the citizenship of a Prussian city.

"The religions must all be tolerated and the state has to keep an eye that none of them shall derogate the other, because here everyone must find his salvation in his own way.
"die Religionen müssen alle toleriert werden und der Fiscal muß nur das Auge darauf haben, dass Keine der Andern abruch tue, denn hier muß ein jeder nach seiner Fassung selig werden."

Reply on the question of his secretaries whether the catholic schools should be abolished in protestant Prussia.

"The priest will stay. If he does not want to get up with the others on judgement day, he may well keep lying on his back."
"Der Pfarrer bleibt. Wenn er am Jüngsten Tag nicht mit aufstehen will, kann er ruhig liegen bleiben."

Answer to the request of a parish in Pomerania to send a new priest, as the present one had ventured to deny the resurrection on judgement day.

"That the arrested man has commited blasphemy is a proof that he does not know God. That he has slandered me, I pardon him. But for his insulting of an honourable member of the council, he shall be punished as an example and be sent to Spandau prison for half an hour."
"Dass der Arrestat Gott gelästert hat, ist ein Beweis, dass er ihn nicht kennt. Daß er mich gelästert hat, vergebe ich ihm; daß er aber einen edlen Rat gelästert hat, dafür soll er exemplarisch bestraft werden und auf eine halbe Stunde nach Spandau kommen."

Answering a question by a mayor how to punish a man that had committed blasphemy and insulted the king and the City Council.

"Before I endorse this sentence, I am curious to hear of the measures you want to employ for making a simple soldier pay 2000 Taler."
"Bevor ich das gegenwärtige Urteil bestätige, bin Ich doch neugierig, die Mittel zu wissen, deren man sich bedienen will, einen Soldaten 2000 Taler bezahlen zu lassen."

Note on a verdict against a soldier who was sentenced to a fine of 2000 Taler for smuggling.

"

The greatest and noblest pleasure which men can have in this world is to discover new truths; and the next is to shake off old prejudices."

"Audacity, audacity - always audacity!"
L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace!

"Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl."

"Dogs, would you live forever?"
"Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben?"

Adressing his retreating Prussians at the Battle of Kolin on June 18. 1757
qoutes by Bismarck

The great questions of the time are not decided by speeches and majority decisions — that was the error of 1848 and 1849 — but by blood and iron.

Speech to the Prussian Diet (30 September 1862) Variant rendition: The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions... but by iron and blood.

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

Speech to North German Reichstag (24 September 1867)

Setzen wir Deutschland, so zu sagen, in den Sattel! Reiten wird es schon können.
Let us lift Germany, so to speak, into the saddle. It will certainly be able to ride.

Speech to Parliament of Confederation (1867)

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

Speech to North German Reichstag (21 May 1869)

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.

The luxury of one's own opinion.

Speech to the Prussian Diet (17 December 1873)

Politics is not an exact science . . . but an art.

Speech (15 March 1884)

Wir Deutschen fürchten Gott, sonst aber Nichts in der Welt; und diese Gottesfurcht ist es schon, die uns den Frieden lieben und pflegen lässt.
We Germans fear God, but nothing else in the world; and already that godliness is it, which let us love and foster peace.

Speech to the Reichstag (6 February 1888)

Your map of Africa is really quite nice. But my map of Africa lies in Europe. Here is Russia, and here... is France, and we're in the middle — that's my map of Africa.

Conversation with a colonial enthusiast revealing his disapproval of Colonialism. (1888)

Der alte Jude, das ist der Mann.
The old Jew, he is the man.

A conversation in 1879 on who was the centre of gravity at the Congress of Berlin, referring to Benjamin Disraeli

Der König herrscht aber regiert nicht.
The king reigns but does not govern.

Ich bin gewöhnt in der Münze wiederzuzahlen in der man mich bezahlt.
I am accustomed to pay men back in their own coin.

Lieber Spitzkugeln als Spitzreden.
Better pointed bullets than pointed speeches.

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

A journalist is a person who has mistaken their calling.

A little caution outflanks a large cavalry.

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

A statesman... must wait until he hears the steps of God sounding through events, then leap up and grasp the hem of His garment.

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

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

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

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.

I have seen three emperors in their nakedness, and the sight was not inspiring.

If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans.

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

Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.

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

Politics is the art of the possible.

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

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

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

The whole of the Balkans is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier.

When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of putting it into practice.

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

With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I try to be a fraud and a half.

[Lord Godfrey]

Here are a few of my favorites:

"The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing."
- Jean Baptiste Colbert, minister of finance to King Louis XIV

“A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.”
- G. Gordon Liddy

"Come on, you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever?!"
- Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daily, US Marines, before leading his pinned-down men on a charge of German machine gun positions at Belleau Wood, World War I

“I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harms way.”
- John Paul Jones

"Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."
- Colin Powell said to the Archbishop of Canterbury

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."
- Benjamin Franklin, 1759

"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem: They know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves."
- Irish playwright Brendan Behan

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
- Edmund Burke

[Atilius]

Patrick Cleburne was one of the outstanding division commanders of the American Civil War. He was killed in assault on a strong Union position at Franklin, Tennessee on November 30, 1864. Upon hearing the news, Gen. William Hardee wrote of Cleburne and his command:

Where this division defended, no odds broke its line; where it attacked, no numbers resisted its onslaught, save only once; and there is the grave of Cleburne.

[Red Peasant]

Here are a few of my favorites:

"Come on, you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever?!"
- Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daily, US Marines, before leading his pinned-down men on a charge of German machine gun positions at Belleau Wood, World War I

Did he know that he was quoting Frederick the Great?

Mind you, it's probably the kind of thing that many officers and NCOs have barked at their men throughout military history.

[Brenus]

Another one I am not sure:
An English cavalry officer:
“Your live belong to God, your horse to the Queen; only your spurs belong to you. Don’t tell me you hesitate for one pair of spurs”

[Aenlic]

Found some more interesting quotes, including a few by that great wit H. L. Mencken and some with more of a history interest like de Tocqueville.

"Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right." - H. L. Mencken

"There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it." - Alexis de Tocqueville

"Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop." - H. L. Mencken

"A tyrant is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader." - Plato

"Wars are seldom caused by spontaneous hatreds between people, for peoples in general are too ignorant of one another to have grievances and too indifferent to what goes on beyond their borders to plan conquests. They must be urged to the slaughter by politicians who know how to alarm them." - H. L. Mencken

"History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap." - Ronald Reagan

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." - James Madison

"Talk of imminent threat to our national security through the application of external force is pure nonsense. Indeed it is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear." - Douglas MacArthur

"If the United Nations once admits that international disputes can be settled by using force, then we will have destroyed the foundation of the organization and our best hope of establishing a world order." - Dwight Eisenhower

"Wars are caused by undefended wealth." - Ernest Hemingway

"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." - H. L. Mencken

"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." - H. L. Mencken

"Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution?" - H. L. Mencken

"If we have Senators and Congressmen there that can't protect themselves against the evil temptations of lobbyists, we don't need to change our lobbies, we need to change our representatives." - Will Rogers

"If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?" - Will Rogers

"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts." - Will Rogers

[Brenus]

Georges Clemenceau:

War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men

In order to act, you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.

[Red Peasant]

Isaiah Berlin:

If, as I believe, the ends of men are many, and not all of them are in principle compatible with each other, then the possibility of conflict — and of tragedy — can never wholly be eliminated from human life, either personal or social.

Freedom for the pike is death for the minnows.