man cannot control the current of events. he can only float with them and steer

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.

Weren’t all books ultimately related? After all, the same letters filled them, just arranged in a different order. Which meant that, in a certain way, every book was contained in every other!

No one can escape slavery

A smiling face is half the meal.

I'd like for people to remember me as a winner, because I ain't never been nothin but a winner.

The history of music is nothing more than the history of art-music or classical music, the music that was commissioned by aristocrats.

Extend the sphere and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have common motive to invade the rights of other citizens.

Just trust yourself and you'll learn the art of living.

Sometimes people accuse me of being incomprehensible only because they look for an explicative side to my pictures which is not there.

My girlfriend's a costume designer in the theater.

Sure, I've often been misrepresented - anyone frequently quoted has this experience.