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

“Woe to the statesman who does not take care to find a case for war that will still hold good after the war”;

“With a gentleman I always try to be one and a half times the gentleman, and with a scoundrel one and a half times the scoundrel”;

“The strong are always right”;

“With bad laws and good officials it is quite possible to govern a country. But if the officials are bad, the best laws will not help”;

“Those who love sausages and respect the law had better not watch either being made”;

“A state’s attitude to the teacher is state policy, which testifies either to the strength of the state or to its weakness”;

“Nature herself destined me to be a diplomat: I was born on the first of April”;

“He is a fool who learns from his own experience; I prefer to learn from others and to avoid paying for my own mistakes”.

(Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) was a German statesman and politician, the first chancellor of the German Empire, who carried out the plan to unite Germany in 1871. He is considered one of the greatest politicians of the 19th century.)