Heinrich von Treitschke

"A thousand touching traits testify to the sacred power of the love which a righteous war awakes in noble nations."

"The conquest of lands beyond the Atlantic is now the first aim of the European fleets. For, as the aim of human civilisation is the aristocracy of the white race over the whole globe, the importance of any nation will in the end be determined by the share it has in the domination of the transatlantic world. Hence the Fleet becomes more and more important in our time. [...] We must and will have our share in the control of the globe by the white race."

"The enlargement of Prussian power is little by little becoming a demand of justice."

"Martial force is the basis of all political virtues; in the rich treasure of Germany's glories the Prussian military glory is a jewel as precious, as loyally acquired as the masterpieces of our poets and our thinkers; the sacred character of the allegiance to the flag is a witness to the moral force of our people. Therefore let our Liberalism return to those ancient German convictions."

"All treaties between nations are valid only with the reservation clause: rebus sic stantibus. They do not pledge a State for ever."

"...One thing alone can drive us, against our will, beyond these modest desires. If the next French attack against the German Empire found the Dutch among the enemy faction, at that exact moment Holland, by her senseless mistrust, would herself be precipitated into her ruin. Then, and only then, would it be necessary to attempt to put an end once and for all to the millenary struggle over the ruins of ancient Lotharingia, and once more to compel the countries of the Lower Rhine perforce to rejoin the great people whom they abandoned long ago. Holland holds in her hands the means of averting, by a just and fearless policy, these interminable conflagrations. The majestic progress of German affairs, the unity of our Empire from the North Sea to Lake Constance, the complete organisation of this unity are not to be impeded by the outcries of small peoples who cannot forget the splendour of past days."

"Our military organisation remains a glorious manifestation of German political idealism; without admitting the fact, all our neighbours regret that they have not been able, some because of the inadequacy of their culture, others because of their extreme individualism, to imitate these institutions with complete success."

"Those who preach the nonsense of eternal peace do not understand Aryan national life."

"War is elevating, because the individual disappears before the great conception of the state…. What a perversion of morality to wish to abolish heroism among men!"

"God will see to it that war always recurs as a drastic medicine for the human race."

"Among the workers there is spreading a theory of the absolute blessedness of peace, which is a scandal to the intelligence and moral energy of our age; a hotch-potch of phrases, so clear that everybody reposts them, and so miserable that every man who is a man throws them overboard at once when the majesty of war arises in bodily form before the people."

"Wäre die Geschichte eine exakte Wissenschaft, so müßten wir im Stande sein die Zukunft der Staaten zu enthüllen. Das können wir aber nicht, denn überall stößt die Geschichtswissenschaft auf das Räthsel der Persönlichkeit. Personen, Männer sind es, welche die Geschichte machen."

"Männer machen die Geschichte."

"Kein Volk hat Gott verlassen, das sich nicht selbst verließ."

"Heute aber ist die herrschende Vorstellung, daß jeder Mensch eine Masse von Notizen in seinem Kopf herumtragen solle, und das nennt man dann allgemeine Bildung."

"Der Trieb der menschlichen Natur, das Interesse, das dem Staate zu Grunde liegt, ist überall dasselbe."

"Der Staat kann nicht blos Form sein; bloße Formen giebt es gar nicht."

"Der höchste denkbare Grad der Gleichheit, der Communismus, ist, weil er die Unterdrückung aller natürlichen Neigungen voraussetzt, der höchste denkbare Grad der Knechtschaft."

"Das Übermaß der Freiheit wird Sklaverei, denn wenn es keine Autorität mehr gibt, so ist der Starke unumschränkt, und der Schwache verfällt dem Rechte der Faust. Die Überspannung der Freiheit führt nicht allein zur Knechtschaft, sondern ist selbst schon Knechtschaft."

"Alle Politik ist Kunst, Ausführung, Einbilden der Idee in den spröden Stoff."