One day the great European War [will] come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans.

[ Of possible German military intervention in the Balkans :] Not worth the healthy bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier. Speech to Reichstag, 5 Dec. 1876

[ Remark to Meyer von Waldeck, 11 Aug. 1867 :] Die Politik ist die Lehre von Möglichen . Politics is the art of the possible.

[ Of his dispute with Pope Pius IX over papal authority in Germany, alluding to Emperor Henry IV’s obeisance to Pope Gregory VII at Canossa in 1077 :] We will not go to Canossa.

Let us put Germany in the saddle, so to speak—it already knows how to ride.

The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions . . . but by iron and blood.

We Germans fear God, but nothing else in the world.

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

A special Providence protects fools, drunkards, small children and the United States of America.

Show me an objective worthy of war and I will go along with you.