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

Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

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

What we learn from History is that no one learns from History

The Americans are a very lucky people. They're bordered to the north and south by weak neighbors, and to the east and west by fish.

God has a special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States of America.

People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.

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

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

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.

Never fight with Russian. On your every stratagem they answer unpredictable stupidity.

Love is the only mirror we must use to judge ourselves and others.

I'm named after my father, Rudolph, " he said, then shot her a stern look. "But if you connect that with my red nose --

Going to the opera like getting drunk is a sin that carries its own punishment with it and that a very severe one.

I cannot conceive curved lines of force without the conditions of a physical existence in that intermediate space.

The global business climate is likewhatever, dude.

People are first and foremost Republicans, first and foremost Anarchists, first and foremost a man or woman, and that is a mistake. It hurts the individual and it hurts the whole.

I've never been noticeably reticent about talking on subjects about which I know nothing.

It seems unpleasantly refined to put things off till someone knows.

No matter through what realms of the fantastic you may travel, you arrive inevitably at the commonplace.