For Bismarck, the health and progress of the state, as he saw it, was the principal purpose of his policy. He was not a man who cared about causes or hypothetical principles. I have never been a doctrinaire. Liberal, reactionary, conservative . . . Yes, I have no fixed opinions, make proposals.
Many roads lead to Rome.
Sometimes one may rule liberally, and sometimes dictatorially, there are no eternal rules. My only aim has been the creation and consolidation of Germany. But Germany must exhibit a united will, and there must be agreement on the activities undertaken by the state on behalf of all. Authority must not be fragmented, and this emphasis upon unity forced Bismarck into the attempt to rid Germany of any influence strong enough to compete with him for the allegiance of Germans. He engaged in a long and ultimately fruitless attack upon the Catholic church because he believed that German Catholics could give only a fraction of their allegiance to the German state and must reserve some part of their loyalties to a non-German authority.