The less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they'll sleep at night

I have found that nothing so deceives your adversaries as telling them the truth.

Not even the King himself has the right to subordinate the interests of his country to his own feelings of love or hatred towards strangers; he is, however, responsible towards God and not to me if he does so, and therefore on this point I am silent.

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

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

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

Revolutions in Prussia are started by kings, and since it is a revolution, it is better to start it ourselves than to suffer of it