Laws are like sausages. You sleep far better the less you know about how they are made.
Otto Von BismarckRead
History is simply a piece of paper covered with print: the main thing is to make history, not to write it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Making impactful contributions is more important than merely recording them.
Otto Von Bismarck suggests that actions and accomplishments hold greater significance than documentation. Writing history may preserve events, but actively shaping them is essential for true legacy, emphasizing the value of being a participant in the unfolding narrative of life rather than just an observer.
Themes
HistoryLegacyActionImpactChange
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech, one could use this quote to encourage individuals to take initiative in their lives.
More from Otto Von Bismarck
All quotes βPreventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death.
Otto Von BismarckRead
With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I try to be a fraud and a half.
Otto Von BismarckRead
Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable β the art of the next best
Otto Von BismarckRead
It is the destiny of the weak to be devoured by the strong.
Otto Von BismarckRead
A generation that has taken a beating is always followed by a generation that deals one.
Otto Von BismarckRead
Similar quotes
In Constantinople, more Christians were slaughtered by Christians in the years 342-343 than by all the persecutions by pagans in the history of Rome.
Will DurantRead
The Holocaust is a sacred subject. One should take off one's shoes when entering its domain, one should tremble each time one pronounces the word.
Elie WieselRead
Poland was the racial laboratory of the Nazis. This is where they started to put their abhorrent theories into practice.
Norman DaviesRead
The Germans could not get over the perfidy of it. It was unbelievable that the English, having degenerated to the stage where suffragettes heckled the Prime Minister and defied the police, were going to fight.
Barbara TuchmanRead
Watergate is an immensely complicated scandal with a cast of characters as varied as a Tolstoy novel.
Bob WoodwardRead
The history of the world - by which, of course, we mean Europe - is a record of intertribal lacerations, of ethnic cleansings.
Derek WalcottRead