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

I consider even a victorious war as an evil, from which statesmanship must endeavor to spare nations.

We live in a wondrous time in which the strong is weak because of his moral scruples and the weak grows strong because of his audacity.

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.

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

The division of the United States into federations of equal force was decided long before the Civil War by the high financial powers of Europe. These bankers were afraid that the United States, if they remained in one block and as one nation, would attain economic and financial independence, which would upset their financial domination over the world. The voice of the Rothschilds prevailed... Therefore they sent their emissaries into the field to exploit the question of slavery and to open an abyss between the two sections of the Union.

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.