Rascals! Would you live forever?

- King Frederick II (the Great)

The prince is the first servant of the state.
- King Frederick II (the Great)

War nourishes war
- Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

Only the worthy get killed; my type always survive.
- King Frederick II (the Great), letter to his sister Wilhelmina, 1757

Everything which the enemy least expects will succeed the best.
- King Frederick II (the Great), Instructions for his Generals (1747)

It is better to lose a province than split the forces with which one seeks victory.
- King Frederick II (the Great)

I cannot help feeling that it were better to perish honourably than accept a disgraceful peace.
- Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, letter to Friedrich Ebert before the Treaty of Versailles, 1919