“Politics is the art of the possible.”

— Otto von Bismarck

Franklin says this line in the HBO miniseries John Adams, but it is actually a quote of Otto von Bismarck. (de) Die Politik ist die Lehre vom Möglichen. Interview (11 August 1867) with Friedrich Meyer von Waldeck of the St. Petersburgische Zeitung: Aus den Erinnerungen eines russischen Publicisten. 2. Ein Stündchen beim Kanzler des norddeutschen Bundes. In: Die Gartenlaube (1876) p. 858 de.wikisource. Reprinted in Fürst Bismarck: neue Tischgespräche und Interviews, Vol. 1, p. 248 http://books.google.com/books?id=UpUBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA248&dq=%22die+Politik+ist+die+Lehre+vom+Möglichen%22 Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Otto von Bismarck / Quotes / 1860s Misattributed

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Otto von Bismarck35

German statesman, Chancellor of Germany 1815–1898

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