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

Frederick the Great Quotes

I think it better to keep a profound silence with regard to the Christian fables, which are canonized by their antiquity and the credulity of absurd and insipid people.

— Frederick the Great

Artillery adds dignity, to what would otherwise be an ugly brawl.

— Frederick the Great

God is always with the strongest battalions.

— Frederick the Great

A German singer! I should as soon expect to get pleasure from the neighing of my horse.

— Frederick the Great

Do not neglect the principles of foresight and know that often, puffed up with success, armies have lost the fruit of their heroism through a feeling of false security.

— Frederick the Great

I have no fault to find with those who teach geometry. That science is the only one which has not produced sects; it is founded on analysis and on synthesis and on the calculus; it does not occupy itself with the probable truth; moreover it has the same method in every country.

— Frederick the Great

One should never despair too soon.

— Frederick the Great

If I wished to punish a province, I would have it governed by philosophers.

— Frederick the Great

Though I may not be a king in my future life, so much the better: I shall nevertheless live an active life and, on top of it, earn less ingratitude.

— Frederick the Great

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

He who cannot stand misfortune does not deserve good fortune.

— Frederick the Great

In my state every man can be saved after his own fashion.

— Frederick the Great

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

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

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

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

The Prussian army always attacks.

— Frederick the Great

Diplomacy without arms is like music without instruments.

— 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

An Englishman had the insanity to kill himself a few years ago in London; on his table was found a note where he justified his action, which said that this way, he would never become sick again.

— Frederick the Great
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