Few countries can be proud of good politicians who thought about the good of the country and people, and not about their political career and money. And Germany is precisely one of such countries.
The first Chancellor of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck, was not only the first who managed to unite Germany, but in addition to this, he was also a master of finding ideal compromises. And it was along his path that Germany began to develop after the Second World War, which ultimately very quickly helped it frolic into one of the most powerful economic countries.
But Otto von Bismarck is known not only for his political activities, but also for his apt quotes.
And in this article we have collected for you some really apt quotes from Otto von Bismarck.
*** Study as if you were to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow.
*** Even a victorious war is an evil that must be prevented by the wisdom of nations.
*** Anyone who has ever looked into the glassy eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think twice before starting a war.
*** Life has taught me to forgive a lot, but even more - to seek forgiveness.
*** The phrase: “In principle, I agree” means that you do not intend to allow this.
*** When the arguments end, the guns begin to speak. Strength is the last argument of a stupid person.
*** Woe to that statesman who does not take the trouble to find a basis for war that will still retain its significance even after the war.
*** Stupidity is a gift from God, but it should not be abused.
*** With a gentleman I always try to be one and a half times more of a gentleman, and with a swindler I try to be one and a half times more of a swindler.
*** Preventive war is suicide due to fear of death.
*** With bad laws and good officials it is quite possible to rule the country.
*** Beer makes you lazy, stupid and powerless.
*** One and only one person must be responsible for every assigned task.
*** If you want to build socialism, choose a country that you don’t feel sorry for.
*** In life it’s like in the dentist’s chair: it always seems that the most important thing will happen, but it’s already behind.
*** The attitude of the state towards the teacher is a state policy that indicates either the strength of the state or its weakness.
*** The press is not yet public opinion.
*** I was destined by nature to become a diplomat; I was born on the first of April.
*** He is stupid who learns from his own experience, I prefer to learn from others and avoid paying for my mistakes.
*** The war between Germany and Russia is the greatest stupidity. That is why it will definitely happen...
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This was a man who loved to drink, eat well, fight a duel in his spare time, and make a couple of good warriors. For some time, the “Iron Chancellor” served as the Prussian ambassador to Russia. The first Chancellor of the German Empire, politician, Prince Otto von Bismarck is not known only by his state activities, but also by his apt statements, some of which have long become aphorisms.
Life has taught me to forgive a lot, but even more to seek forgiveness.
They never lie so much as during the war, after the hunt and before the elections.
Stupidity is a gift from God, but it should not be abused.
We are all people, and so is the government.
The strong are always right.
The Russians cannot be defeated, we have been convinced of this for hundreds of years.
But Russians can be instilled with false values and then they will defeat themselves.
Otto von Bismarck. Drawing by Franz Kruger, 1826
The Russians take a long time to harness, but they travel quickly.
Make alliances with anyone, start any wars, but never touch the Russians.
Even a victorious war is an evil that must be prevented by the wisdom of nations.
Never trust Russians, because Russians don’t even trust themselves.
Even the most favorable outcome of the war will never lead to the disintegration of Russia, which rests on millions of Russian believers of the Greek confession. The Russians, even if they are dismembered by international treaties, will reunite with each other as quickly as separated droplets of mercury find their way to each other. This indestructible state of the Russian nation is strong for its climate, its spaces and its unpretentiousness, as well as its awareness of the need to constantly protect its borders.
Otto von Bismarck as Chancellor of Germany, 1871
We cannot make history, we can only wait for it to happen.
Politics is the art of the possible.
It's not the work that's exhausting, it's the responsibility.
When the arguments run out, the guns start talking. Strength is the last argument of a stupid person.
The power of Russia can only be undermined by the separation of Ukraine from it... it is necessary not only to tear off, but also to contrast Ukraine with Russia. To do this, you just need to find and cultivate traitors among the elite and, with their help, change the self-awareness of one part of the great people to such an extent that they will hate everything Russian, hate their family, without realizing it. Everything else is a matter of time.
“Iron Chancellor” Otto von Bismarck with his dogs Tiras II and Rebecca at the Friedrichsruh estate, July 6, 1891
When you want to fool the whole world, tell the truth.
The press is not yet public opinion.
Revolutions are prepared by geniuses, carried out by romantics, and their fruits are enjoyed by scoundrels.
All you have to do is put Germany in the saddle, and she will be able to gallop.
With bad laws and good officials it is quite possible to rule the country. But if the officials are bad, even the best laws will not help.
Never plot anything against Russia, because it will respond to every cunning of yours with its unpredictable stupidity.
Don't expect that once you take advantage of Russia's weakness, you will receive dividends forever. Russians always come for their money. And when they come, do not rely on the Jesuit agreements you signed, which supposedly justify you. They are not worth the paper they are written on. Therefore, you should either play fairly with the Russians, or not play at all.
Otto von Bismarck, 1886
Freedom is a luxury that not everyone can afford.
Friendship between a man and a woman weakens greatly when night falls.
With a gentleman I will always be half a great gentleman, with a swindler I will always be half a great swindler.
Study as if you were to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow.
Beware of building castles in the air.
The only healthy basis for a great state is state egoism, not romance, and it is unworthy of a great power to fight for a cause that does not concern its own interests.
I was destined by nature to become a diplomat: I was born on the first of April.
Bismarck continued to use Russian throughout his political career. Russian words regularly slip into his letters. Having already become the head of the Prussian government, he even sometimes made resolutions on official documents in Russian: “Impossible” or “Caution.” But the Russian “nothing” became the favorite word of the “Iron Chancellor”. He admired its nuance and polysemy and often used it in private correspondence, for example: “Alles nothing.” One incident helped him penetrate into the secret of the Russian “nothing”. Bismarck hired a coachman, but doubted that his horses could go fast enough. "Nothing!" - answered the driver and rushed along the uneven road so briskly that Bismarck became worried: “You won’t throw me out?” "Nothing!" - answered the coachman. The sleigh overturned, and Bismarck flew into the snow, bleeding his face. In a rage, he swung a steel cane at the driver, and he grabbed a handful of snow with his hands to wipe Bismarck’s bloody face, and kept saying: “Nothing... nothing!” Subsequently, Bismarck ordered a ring from this cane with the inscription in Latin letters: “Nothing!” And he admitted that in difficult moments he felt relief, telling himself in Russian: “Nothing!”
***
I encountered another Russian peculiarity during my first stay in St. Petersburg in 1859. In the first spring days, the society belonging to the court walked along the Summer Garden, between the Pavlovsk Palace and the Neva. The Emperor noticed that there was a sentry standing in the middle of one of the lawns. When asked why he was standing there, the soldier could only answer that “it’s so ordered”; The emperor instructed his adjutant to inquire at the guardhouse, but even there they could not give any other answer, except that a sentry was assigned to this guard in winter and summer, and by whose original order it was impossible to establish. This topic became a hot topic at court, and conversations about it reached the servants. Among them was an old footman, already retired, who reported that his father, walking with him through the Summer Garden past the guard, said: “And the guard is still standing and guarding the flower. Empress Catherine once saw the first snowdrop in this place much earlier than usual and ordered to ensure that it was not picked.” Fulfilling the order, a sentry was posted here, and since then he has stood there year after year. Such facts cause us censure and ridicule, but they express the primitive power, stability and constancy on which the strength of what constitutes the essence of Russia as opposed to the rest of Europe is based. In this regard, one involuntarily recalls the sentries who were not removed in St. Petersburg during the flood of 1825 and on Shipka in 1877, and some drowned and others froze at their post.
***
In the first half of June 1859, I went to Moscow for a short time. While the Moscow governor, Prince Dolgoruky, was taking me around a library, I saw on the servant’s chest, among many military orders, the Iron Cross. To my question on what occasion he received it, the servant answered: “For the Battle of Kulm.” I congratulated the old soldier on the fact that he still looked so cheerful after 46 years, and heard in response that he would go now to war, if only the sovereign would allow it. I asked him who he would go with - Italy or Austria, to which he, standing at attention, enthusiastically declared: “Always against Austria.” I noticed that under Kulm, Austria was a friend of Prussia and Russia, and Italy was our enemy, to which he said loudly and clearly: “An honest enemy is better than an unfaithful friend.”
O. Bismarck. Thoughts and memories. https://publ.lib.ru/ARCHIVES/B/BISMARK_Otto/_Bismark_O..html
Bismarck on education, rudeness of schoolchildren and the growth of respect for students
1. An interesting quote from the collected works of Otto von Bismarck about the problems of education in the German Empire. Many things are attributed to Bismarck that he did not say, but in this case the text appears to be genuine. A monetam colleague cites a fragment from a letter from the “Iron Chancellor” to the German Emperor: https://monetam.livejournal.co...
The main problem of our higher schools [meaning gymnasiums and universities] is their abundance and the incentives artificially created by our institutions to attend them. As a result, we have many more educated young people than are needed and than we can adequately provide financially. Our higher schools are attended by too many young men for whom neither the abilities nor the origin of their parents give them grounds to aspire to an intellectual profession. The consequence is overcrowding of educational institutions and the education of a learned proletariat, dangerous for the state. Adjacent to this layer is another – “half-formed”. Its appearance is explained by the fact that we place too high demands on the quality of education in our public schools. As a result, children do not want to do what their parents did and set goals for themselves that they cannot achieve, which causes them to become dissatisfied. Every year there is an increase in the number of people who, due to their education, claim a standard of living that they cannot provide for themselves. This is how we experience the same conditions that became the ground for nihilism in Russia.
To prevent this kind of development, I propose, first of all, to limit the number of higher schools and the possibility of studying in them, as far as possible within the framework of the law. In any case, increasing their number should be prohibited. Scholarships at universities and gymnasiums should be given to a smaller number of students and schoolchildren, but in an increased amount. The charging of tuition fees in all departments except theology should be prohibited, lest this good endeavor attract frivolous students who will then become dissatisfied citizens. I would also recommend an increase in tuition fees at grammar schools and universities, and in this regard I would like to refer to the example of England, where studies at higher schools such as Eton and Harrow, as well as universities, cost significant sums. I consider this an important advantage, since attending higher schools becomes impossible for people whose level of education exceeds their standard of living and becomes a source of discontent. Hand in hand with limiting the number of higher schools dedicated to the education of intellectuals must go the creation of trade and vocational schools, as well as the elimination of the prejudice that a career in crafts, industry or commerce is less honorable. However, too many young people attending higher education is not the only problem with our education system. The very type and style of teaching in these schools needs reform. In all our schools - from the gymnasium to the rural public school - there is an unhealthy predominance of material that needs to be memorized. The result is memory overload due to the mechanical accumulation of knowledge. At the same time, too little attention is paid to developing the character and spirit for independent thinking. These deficiencies, together with the lack of exercise, would be even more noticeable if military service did not correct many of the problems caused both by school and home education and overload of students. The desire to place more emphasis on knowledge than on skills is already revealing its shortcomings in the public school. There is a constant tendency here to expand educational material and exceed the volume established by law. As a result, instead of preparing the student for practical life, the school alienates him from the tasks ahead of him and from the conditions in which his parents live. Already, there are a growing number of those who leave school with the belief that they are too good for the work their fathers did because their level of education is higher. Especially smart children who have achieved success in school are at risk of becoming victims of the desire to move beyond the sphere of life in which their parents find themselves. If they fail, they join the ranks of the dissatisfied. Today in rural areas there are too many of those who, having received a good education, do not want to work themselves, but only to supervise the work of others - and too few of those who are ready to work.” Source: Bismarck Ov Gesammelte Werke. Abteilung III. Schriften. Bd. 8. Paderborn, 2014. S. 642-644.
2. Russian teachers proposed issuing fines to parents for inappropriate behavior of their children: https://lenta.ru/news/2020/02/…
The All-Russian Teachers' Union proposed fining for insulting teachers. As Izvestia writes, parents of hooligans can pay from 500 to three thousand rubles, and in the event of an attack on a teacher - up to five thousand rubles. The trade union has developed a bill designed to introduce liability for disrespectful treatment of teachers. To this end, it is proposed to amend the Federal Law “On Education” and the Code of Administrative Offenses. The amendments also imply responsibility not only for parents, but also for officials and legal entities. For the latter, the fine for insulting a teacher will be from 100 to 150 thousand rubles. According to a study by the National Research University Higher School of Economics, about 70 percent of Russian teachers have experienced bullying from parents, students or colleagues.
Question to readers: are you ready to support our teachers and pay fines of this size?
3. There is another opinion, according to which the relationship between teachers and students in modern schools has become much healthier, and teachers have learned to respect students. Here is what psychologist Vasily Pozdnyakov writes: https://psyteaman.livejournal....
Those who grew up in the 90s matured before the current era of child-centrism arrived. Therefore, in those days, at home from adults and at school from teachers, one could hear not very pleasant, but recognizable phrases that almost everyone remembers with some nostalgia for childhood. These phrases were told to us by adults or teachers. And this is what their teachers told their teachers as children, when the world was even further away from the unconditional dominance of children’s rights. “Didn’t you forget your head at home?” “For those who are especially gifted, I repeat again” “I am the last letter in the alphabet” “And if everyone jumps out of the window, will you jump too?” “They won’t even hire you as a janitor.” For illustration, the mildest of phrases were specially selected, which at that time did not cause much negativity. But there were also episodes at home or at school that are even difficult to imagine in our time. Because now teachers are kicked out of work for humiliating a child’s dignity.
