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"Preventive war is like committing suicide for fear of death."

— Otto von Bismarck

January 1, 1970

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Added on April 10, 2026

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Military leaders from Germany Prussians Chancellors of Germany German foreign ministers Ministers of Germany

Original Language: English

Sources

Quoted as a remark of Bismark without quotation marks, in Thinking About the Unthinkable in the 1980s (1984) by , p. 136, a paraphrase of what Bismarck told the Reichstag on Feb. 9, 1876. Referring to March 1875, when the French National Assembly had decided to strengthen their army by 144,000 additional troops, Bismarck asked the deputies to imagine he had told them a year ago that one had to wage war without having been attacked or humiliated: „Würden Sie da nicht sehr geneigt gewesen sein, zu

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bismarck

Quoted as a remark of Bismark without quotation marks, in Thinking About the Unthinkable in the 1980s (1984) by , p. 136, a paraphrase of what Bismarck told the Reichstag on Feb. 9, 1876. Referring to March 1875, when the French National Assembly had decided to strengthen their army by 144,000 additional troops, Bismarck asked the deputies to imagine he had told them a year ago that one had to wage war without having been attacked or humiliated: „Würden Sie da nicht sehr geneigt gewesen sein, zu