Thursday, April 9, 2009

Bismarck...Not just a cream filled pastry.

I'm pretty sure Otto von Bismarck falls under the category of "People I Shouldn't Like, but Kind of Do".

Danny and I were studying the unification of Germany today during History. Bismarck was an interesting person. He built up the Prussian army, then tricked Austria into the Seven Week War. After that, he connived (partly by falsifying a telegram) to go to war with France. He beat them in less than seven weeks. I like some of his quotes:
  • "Better pointed bullets than pointed words."
  • "People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election."

and my personal favorite -

  • "Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made."

5 comments:

Suzanne said...

Ok, I can see the fascination. I saw the Law/sausage quote in a restaurant last week, good to know where it came from.

Debbie said...

You saw the law/sausage quote in a restaurant? That kind of cracks me up. Did you order the sausage?

Keira said...

I've heard that quote--now I can attribute it...Danke.

OKTownsends said...

So did you determine if the Bismark donut is in his honor because I can overlook some faults in that case?

We served Bavarian creme donuts and Brats at my son's homecoming party from Germany. Too bad we didn't have the quotes.

Debbie said...

I looked up Bismarks on Wikipedia - it did say they were named after Otto von Bismarck...whether it's true or not I'm going with it. I do love a good Bismarck