WIST

When you say that you agree to a thing in principle you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.

Otto von Bismark (1815-1898) Prussian statesman
(Attributed)

Variants:

• "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."

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

Otto von Bismark (1815-1898) Prussian statesman
(Attributed)

Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.

Otto von Bismark (1815-1898) Prussian statesman
(Misattributed)

This and variants are attributed to Bismark, but this is the earliest known use of the phrase, attributed to John Godfrey, Saxe University Chronicle, University of Michigan (27 Mar 1869). According to  Fred R. Shapiro, "Quote... Misquote", New York Times (21 Jul 2008), the remark was first attributed to Bismark in the 1930s.

Variants (usually attrib. to Bismark):

• "If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made."
• "Laws are like sausages — it is best not to see them being made."
• "Laws are like sausages. It is better not to see them being made."
• "Laws are like sausages. You should never see them made."
• "Laws are like sausages. You should never watch them being made."
• "Law and sausage are two things you do not want to see being made."
• "No one should see how laws or sausages are made."
• "To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making."
• "The making of laws like the making of sausages, is not a pretty sight."
• "Je weniger die Leute darüber wissen, wie Würste und Gesetze gemacht werden, desto besser schlafen sie nachts." [The less the people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they sleep in the night.]

 

Politics is the art of the possible.

[Die politik ist die lehre von möglichen.]

Otto von Bismark (1815-1898) Prussian statesman
Remark to Meyer von Waldeck (11 Aug 1867)
Quoted in Heinz Amelung, Bismarck-Worte (1918). There is no surviving first-hand account of his words.

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

[Wer den Daumen auf dem Beutel hat, der hat die Macht.]

Otto von Bismark (1815-1898) Prussian statesman
Speech to North German Reichstag (21 May 1869)

The great issues of the day are not decided through speeches and majority resolutions — that was the great error of 1848 and 1849 — but through blood and iron.

[Nicht durch Reden und Majoritätsbeschlüsse werden die großen Fragen der Zeit entschieden -- das ist der große Fehler von 1848 und 1849 gewesen -- sondern durch Eisen und Blut.]

Otto von Bismark (1815-1898) Prussian statesman
Speech, Budget Commission of the Prussian Diet (30 Sep 1862)

Alternate translations :

• "It is not by speeches and majority vote that the great questions of our time will be decided — as that was error of 1848 and 1849 — but rather by iron and blood."
• "The great questions of the time are not decided by speeches and majority decisions — that was the error of 1848 and 1849 — but by iron and blood."
• "The great issues of the day are not decided through speeches and majority resolutions — that was the great error of 1848 and 1849 — but through blood and iron."
• "The great issues of the day are not decided through speeches and majority resolutions — that was the great error of 1848 and 1849 — but through blood and iron."
• "The great questions of the day will not be decided by speeches and the resolutions of majorities — that was the great mistake from 1848 to 1849 — but by blood and iron."
• "The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions ... but by iron and blood."

 

Politics is not an exact science.

[Die Politik ist keine exakte Wissenschaft.]

Otto von Bismark (1815-1898) Prussian statesman
Speech, Prussian upper house (18 Dec 1863)
In 1884, when speaking in the Reichstag, Bismark offered this variant: "Politics is not a science, as the professors are apt to suppose. It is an art." ["Die Politik ist keine Wissenschaft, wie viele der Herren Proffessoren sich einbilden, sondern eine Kunst."]