One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans (1888).

The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia.

A bad plan that is well executed will yield much better results than a good plan that is poorly executed.

Fools you are. To say you learn by your experience. I prefer to profit by others' mistakes and avoid the price of my own.

When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.

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

Your map of Africa is really quite nice. But my map of Africa lies in Europe. Here is Russia, and here... is France, and we're in the middle - that's my map of Africa.