Remark from Joris van Severen of the Verdinaso

"More than ever, the supreme and most urgent necessity is to see and say things as they are... And, more than for others, this is an imperative necessity for those who take it upon themselves to lead their people... More than ever, because, as perhaps never before, the lives of men and the lives of the nations on all sides are dominated by lies and deceit. Such that one hardly hears or reads words anymore that are words of truth: honest and matter-of-fact expression of genuine reality."

- Joris van Severen

Pinochet on the Nature of Chilean Leaves

"Not a leaf moves in this country if I'm not moving it."

- Augusto Pinochet

The usurper who overthrew socialist Allende in a coup d'état; as with

supporting Pol Pot in a coalition, sometimes the CIA gets it right.

The Weight of Memories in a Patient Land

"But the daily tasks and prayers of men, the ancient city tired from having lived too long, the ravaged marble and worn out bells, all those things oppressed by the weight of memories, all those perishable things were rendered humble in comparison with the tremendous blazing Alps that tore at the sky with their thousand unyielding spikes, a vast, solitary city that was waiting, perhaps, for a new race of Titans."

- D'Annunzio, from The Flame

A view of the Dolomites range of the Alps from Mt. Lagazuoi in Italy

A Remark on Radola Gajda of Czechoslovakia

It turns out that Czechoslovakia did have interwar fascist movements, including the Vlajka and the National Fascist Community, led by Gajda:

"Gajda had been one of the leaders of the Czechoslovak legions in Russia and right-hand man of Admiral Kolchak. In 1926, as chief of staff and inspired by Marshal Pilsudsky's march on Warsaw, he had attempted a coup d'état. A reactionary epigone of pan-Slavism and anti-Bolshevik, related to the White Russians, he had the reputation in Italy of a "Czechoslovak Mussolini"."

- Enzo Santarelli

Himmler on the Living Past and Future in Each

"The wisdom of a thousand generations slumbers in you. Waken it and you have found the key which will open the doors of your truest aspirations. Only he who esteems himself is worthy of being a man. Only he is a man who bears the living past and future in himself, for only he is able to stand above the present hour. And only he who is master of the present is successful; he alone is fulfilled. As only in fulfillment is divinity."

- Heinrich Himmler

Himmler, in front of Wewelsburg...

Beyond the Lotus Moments of the Past

"The slow, soft days are behind us, perhaps forever. Hard days and dark nights ahead, no relaxing of the muscle of mind and will. It is at once our privilege and our ordeal to live in a dynamic period in the history of man. The tents of ease are struck and the soul of man once more is on the march. Do we envy those who have lived in the lotus moments of the past? Do those of my generation regret their own short youth; that brief bright moment between storm and storm? No! we regret nothing, not even our own past. Those who have lived in the happy valleys of blissful, peaceful periods in the history of the world have never known our depths, but they have also never known our heights." 

- Sir Oswald Mosley, 'Fascist Week,' Dec. 22-28, 1933

A Quote from Ribbentrop Complaining about the British

"It was unfortunate that I had to do most of the talking; I felt from the start as if I were addressing a wall... I have spoken to hundreds of Englishmen on this subject..."

- Ribbentrop, exasperated trying to deliver an Anglo-German alliance; in this case, his unfruitful 1936 meeting with Vanisttart

Ribbentrop, unknown date and location; he was satirized by

the British press as "Herr Brickendrop" for his brashness

Excerpt from Céline's Voyage au bout de la nuit

"Ce qui est pire c'est qu'on se demande comment le lendemain on trouvera assez de force pour continuer à faire ce qu'on a fait la veille et depuis déjà tellement trop longtemps, où on trouvera la force pour ces démarches imbéciles, ces mille projets qui n'aboutissent à rien, ces tentatives pour sortir de l'accablante nécessité, tentatives qui toujours avortent, et toutes pour aller se convaincre une fois de plus que le destin est insurmontable, qu'il faut retomber au bas de la muraille, chaque soir, sous l'angoisse de ce lendemain, toujours plus précaire, plus sordide.

C'est l'âge aussi qui vient peut-être, le traître, et nous menace du pire. On n'a plus beaucoup de musique en soi pour faire danser la vie, voilà. Toute la jeunesse est allée mourir déjà au bout du monde dans le silence de vérité. Et où aller dehors, je vous le demande, dès qu'on a plus en soi la somme suffisante de délire ? La vérité, c'est une agonie qui n'en finit pas. La vérité de ce monde c'est la mort. Il faut choisir, mourir ou mentir. Je n'ai jamais pu me tuer moi."

- Céline, Voyage au bout de la nuit

"The farmer is loyal to the fatherland."

- Arnold Meijer, Boer, Het is Tijd!

The Decent One

"The upper half is the teacher, the lower half is the sadist."

- Heydrich, remarking on Himmler

A Quote from Mussolini's First Speech as Prime Minister

Mussolini, in a much later image.

"The Italian Fatherland has found herself again, from the north to the south, from the mainland to those generous islands which shall no more be forgotten, from the metropolis of Rome to the industrious colonies of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Gentlemen, do not throw useless words at the Nation; fifty-two requests to speak on my lists is too much. Let us work, rather, with pure hearts and ready minds to assure the prosperity and the greatness of the Fatherland."

- From Mussolini's first speech to the Cabinet, 16 Nov. 1922

Before the Night of the Long Knives

"National-Socialism is a revolt of the old German tribes of the primeval forest against the Latin civilization of Rome."

- Mussolini, aghast at the Röhm purge

"All revolutions devour their own children."

- Röhm, from Vergniaud, to Hans Frank