The government should cultivate the view also among the propertyless classes of the population, those who are the most numerous and the least educated, that the state is not only an institution of necessity but also of welfare. By recognizable and direct advantages they must be led to look upon the state not as an agency devised solely for the protection of the better-situated classes of society but also as one serving their needs and interests.

I do not regard the procuring of peace as a matter in which we should play the role of arbiter between different opinions ... more that of an honest broker who really wants to press the business forward.

Great men have great dogs.

This policy cannot succeed through speeches, and shooting-matches, and songs; it can only be carried out through blood and iron.

History is simply a piece of paper covered with print: the main thing is to make history, not to write it.

I must protest that I would never seek foreign conflicts just to go over domestic difficulties; that would be frivolous. I was speaking of conflicts that we could not avoid, even though we do not seek them.

A generation that has taken a beating is always followed by a generation that deals one.