Frederick the Great > Quotes

“He who defends everything, defends nothing.”
― Frederick the Great

“Books make up no small part of human happiness.”
― Frederick the Great

“The greatest and noblest pleasure which men can have in this world is to discover new truths; and the next is to shake off old prejudices.”
― Frederick the Great

“A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in.”
― Frederick The Great

“Diplomacy without arms is like a concert without a score”
― Frederick the Great

“Nowadays it is seen as a shame, to marry a girl who is a mother, who has never been married. I want to get rid of that prejudice.”
― Friedrich der große, Erster Diener Seines Staates: Friedrich Der Grosse In Ausgewählten Zitaten

“He who cannot stand misfortune does not deserve good fortune.”
― Frederick the Great

“THE MORE I SEE OF MEN, THE BETTER I LIKE MY DOG." ~ Frederick the Great”
― Frederick the Great

“We are made for action, and activity is the sovereign remedy for all physical ills.”
― Frederick II of Prussia

“It has been said by a certain general, that the first object in the establishment of an army ought to be making provision for the belly, that being the basis and foundation of all operations”
― Frederick the Great

“Diplomacy without arms is like music without instruments.”
― Frederick the Great

“As to your Newton, I confess I do not understand his void and his gravity; I admit he has demonstrated the movement of the heavenly bodies with more exactitude than his forerunners; but you will admit it is an absurdity to maintain the existence of Nothing.

[Letter to Voltaire, 25 Nov. 1777]”
― Frederick the Great

“If I wished to punish a province, I would have it governed by philosophers.”
― Frederick the Great

“The people say what they like and then I do what I like”
― Frederick the Great

“Quand je serai là, je serai sans souci”
― Frederick the Great

“A prince ... is only the first servant of the state, who is obliged to act with probity and prudence. ... As the sovereign is properly the head of a family of citizens, the father of his people, he ought on all occasions to be the last refuge of the unfortunate.”
― Frederick II of Prussia

“In my state every man can be saved after his own fashion.”
― Frederick the Great

“A private individual who has the misfortune to have been born with this lust for power, is more miserable than mad. He is dulled to the present, and exists only in future or imaginary times; nothing in the world can satisfy him, and the drunken ambition which has mastered him always adulterates the softness of his pleasures with bitterness.”
― Frederick the Great, Anti-Machiavel

“The floods which devastate regions, the fire of the lightning which reduces cities to ashes, the poison of the plague which afflicts provinces, are not as disastrous in the world as the dangerous morals and unrestrained passions of the kings:”
― Frederick the Great, The Anti Machiavel of Frederick the Great

“Die Religionen Müsen alle Tolleriret werden und Mus der fiscal nuhr das auge darauf haben, das keine der andern abruch Tuhe, den hier mus ein jeder nach Seiner Fasson Selich werden!"

[Rand-Verfügung des Königs zum Immediat-Bericht des Geistlichen Departements: Katholische Schulen und Proselytenmacherei; Berlin, 22. Mai 1740]”
― Frederick the Great

“„Eine Regierung muss sparsam sein, weil das Geld, das sie erhält, aus dem Blut und Schweiß ihres Volkes stammt. Es ist gerecht, dass jeder einzelne dazu beiträgt, die Ausgaben des Staates tragen zu helfen. Aber es ist nicht gerecht, dass er die Hälfte seines jährlichen Einkommens mit dem Staate teilen muss.”
― Friedrich der große, Zeitlose Weisheiten des Preußenkönigs

“It is enough", this malicious man tells us, "to extinguish the line of the defeated prince." Can one read this without quivering in horror and indignation?”
― Frederick the Great, Anti-Machiavel

“How regrettable it is to blush when you reveal yourself to others just as you are, and when you flee the oppotunity to examine yourself!”
― Frederick the Great, Frederick the Great's Philosophical Writings

“The Prussian army always attacks.”
― Frederick the Great

“(About Cesare Borgia) What cruelties were not the result of his? Who could count all his crimes? Such was the man that Machiavel prefers to all the great geniuses of his time, and to the heroes of antiquity, and of which he finds the life and action make a good example for those that fortune favors.”
― Frederick the Great, Anti-Machiavel

“How could a republic resist, for all time, every cause which undermines its freedom? How could it always contain the ambition of the would-be princes which it also nourishes? How could it withstand for long the seductions of the usurper, the practical deaf person, and the corruption of its members, as long as self-interest will be all-powerful in men? How can it hope to always win, or even leave with honour, every war which it will have to support? How will it be able to prevent these annoying economic situations that come with its freedom, these moments critical and decisive - these and other chances from which arise both the courageous ones and the corrupt? If the troops are ordered by loose and timid heads, it will become the prey of its enemies; and if they have as the head of their soldiers men that are vigorous and bold, these same men, after having been vital in the war, will be dangerous in peace.”
― Frederick the Great, Anti-Machiavel

“Just as people are born, live a time, and die by diseases or old age, in the same way republics are formed, flower a few centuries, and perish finally by the audacity of a citizen, or by the weapons of their enemies. All has their period; all empires, and largest monarchies even, have only so much time: the republics feel continually that this time will arrive, and they look at any too-powerful family as the carriers of a disease which will give them the blow of death.”
― Frederick the Great, Anti-Machiavel

“But France's powerful armies, and a very large number of fortresses, ensure that the French Sovereign will possess the throne forever, and they do not have anything to fear now concerning internal wars or their neighbors invading France.”
― Frederick the Great, Anti-Machiavel

“If it is bad to debase the innocence of a private individual, whose influence on the affairs of the world is minimal, it is much more to pervert some prince who must control his people, administer justice, and set an example for their subjects;”
― Frederick the Great, The Anti Machiavel of Frederick the Great

“It seems to me also that Machiavel was rather unwise in placing Moses with Romulus, Cyrus and Theseus. Either Moses was inspired by God, or he was not. If he were not (which we cannot assume is true), then Moses was a mere tool of God, used as the poets employ a deus ex machina when they cannot create a believable outcome. If you continue to evaluate Moses as a mere human, he could not have been very skilful: he led the Jewish people down a forty-year path, which they very easily could have completed in six weeks.”
― Frederick the Great, Anti-Machiavel