"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
"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 upper half is the teacher, the lower half is the sadist."
- Heydrich, remarking on Himmler
"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
"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
"Romania is dying because of a lack of men, not a lack of programs."
- Corneliu Codreanu, "For My Legionaries"
"Franco advances - victory is clearly his. He has been so misunderstood, so misrepresented in this country that to champion him, and I have done, is dangerous from a Constituency point of view."- Henry Channon, British politician, March 1938
"The enemy within are always more cruel, more vicious, more hateful and more bloodthirsty than an outside enemy. The enemy within is not open about its intentions and hides it real face using religion, nationalism, friendship, patriotism, just to reach its goals. The outer enemy is always open about its intentions."
- Ferenc Szálasi, leader of the Arrow Cross of Hungary
"Perhaps the most eloquent tribute that could be paid him was the great respect and fear demonstrated by Mussolini in the years following the Fiume adventure... Everyone from Mussolini to Premier Franceso Saverio Nitti realized that D'Annunzio could have led a successful march on Rome during his reign at Fiume..."
- Michael A. Ledeen, 'The First Duce'
"I drink to the roses which will flower from the blood."
- Gabriele D'Annunzio, at a gathering in Venice in 1895
"We don't know what Nitti's government is thinking. All we can say is that, if necessary, thousands of volunteers - the best of Italy's youth - will be with D'Annunzio."
- Mussolini's "Long Live Fiume!," in Il Popolo d'Italia
