"It is not by speeches and majority resolutions that the great questions of the time are decided – that was the big mistake of 1848 and 1849 – but by iron and blood."

"Nationalism was the great common factor in the central European revolutions of 1848. Indeed it was a spirit never to be exorcised thereafter."

"The peasants of central Europe also had their social discontents, particularly in Austria where they still lived under the restrictions of a decaying feudalism. The emancipation of the Austrian peasants was one of the few positive and lasting achievements of the revolution."

"1848 was the decisive year of German, and so of European, history: it recapitulated Germany's past and anticipated Germany's future. Echoes of the Holy Roman Empire merged into a prelude of the Nazi "New Order"; the doctrines of Rousseau and the doctrines of Marx, the shade of Luther and the shadow of Hitler, jostled each other in bewildering succession. Never has there been a revolution so inspired by a limitless faith in the power of ideas; never has a revolution so discredited the power of ideas in its result. The success of the revolution discredited conservative ideas; the failure of the revolution discredited liberal ideas. After it, nothing remained but the idea of Force, and this idea stood at the helm of German history from then on. For the first time since 1521, the German people stepped on to the centre of the German stage only to miss their cues once more. German history reached its turning-point and failed to turn. This was the fateful essence of 1848."

"Most of what the men of 1848 fought for was brought about within a quarter of a century, and the men who accomplished it were most of them specific enemies of the 1848 movement. Thiers ushered in a third French Republic, Bismarck united Germany, and Cavour, Italy. Deák won autonomy for Hungary within a dual monarchy; a Russian czar freed the serfs; and the British manufacturing classes moved toward the freedoms of the People's Charter."

"Der Narr scheitert, weil er schwierige Dinge für leicht hält. Der kluge Mann scheitert, weil er leichte Dinge für schwierig hält."

"An einem Sommerabend, im Schatten des heiligen Hains, // da lagen auf Bärenhäuten zu beiden Seiten des Rheins // verschiedene alte Germanen, als plötzlich mit höflichem Gruß // ein Römer kam: "Meine Herren! ich heiße Tacitus". - Allgemeines Deutsches Kommersbuch 1875, Strophe 4 u. 5. Aus: Nr. 631, Tacitus und die alten Deutschen"

"„Eine Flugmaschine zu erfinden bedeutet wenig; sie zu bauen schon mehr; aber sie zu fliegen, das ist das Entscheidende.“"

"„Opfer müssen gebracht werden.“"

"„Von allen, die das Problem des Fliegens im 19. Jahrhundert behandelten, war Otto Lilienthal zweifelsfrei der Bedeutendste […] Betrachtet man Lilienthals Leistung, entsteht die Frage, ob er das Problem des Menschenfluges vollständig gelöst hätte, wenn sein Tod im Jahre 1896 seine Anstrengungen nicht unterbrochen hätte.“"

"„Die Macht des Verstandes, o, wend’ sie nur an,"

"„Alles Fliegen beruht auf der Erzeugung von Luftwiderstand, alle Flugarbeit besteht in der Überwindung von Luftwiderstand.“"