Quotes About Power

the clash between Nazi lies and the rule of law came to a head; the lies won.

History has been unkind to timid presidents. It has been downright cruel to those who think themselves above the Constitution.

A commander in chief who tries to circumvent the Constitution should be restrained by the legislature and judiciary.

Asked by a reporter to summarize his program, Mussolini replied, "It is to break the bones of the democrats … and the sooner the better.

Power is, as we know, an addiction prone to abuse. Even those who enter public life with the best of intentions are susceptible to its pull. We ought, therefore, to be mindful of our own bad habit—which is to look for and expect easy answers when the most serious problems we face are anything but.

the Fascist chiefs we remember best were charismatic. Through one method or another, each established an emotional link to the crowd and, like the central figure in a cult, brought deep and often ugly feelings to the surface.

When the Führer predicted a quick victory over England, implying Spain could wait not longer if it wanted to share in the triumph, Franco doubted the scenario, before adding that even if the Germans were to capture London, the British would continue fighting from Canada.

To secure the future, they turn schools into seminaries for true believers, striving to produce "new men" and "new women" who will obey without question or pause. And, as one of my students observed, "a Fascist who launches his career by being voted into office will have a claim to legitimacy that others do not.

His goal was to secure approval of a law authorizing him to ignore the constitution, bypass the Reichstag, and govern by decree. He

Führer would soon make all things right.

Why has the United States—at least temporarily—abdicated its leadership in world affairs?

do what the government demanded because they could no longer conceive of an alternative.

Henlein was motivated less by Nazi ideology than by the lure of power and fame. His skill as a politician stemmed from his gift for lying with apparent sincerity

His goal was to secure approval of a law authorizing him to ignore the constitution, bypass the Reichstag, and govern by decree.

Years before taking office, Hitler told his fellow Nazis, "The Constitution only maps out the arena of the battle, not the goal… once we possess constitutional power, we will mold the state into the shape we hold to be suitable.

Why are many people in positions of power seeking to undermine public confidence in elections, the courts, the media, and—on the fundamental question of earth's future—science? Why have such dangerous splits been allowed to develop between rich and poor, urban and rural, those with a higher education and those without? Why has the United States—at least temporarily—abdicated its leadership in world affairs?

No error is more common than to assume that the winner of an election has license to do whatever he or she may want.

Many of the tactics Hitler employed to seize and consolidate power, Mussolini had adopted previously: the reliance on violent gangs, the intimidation of parliament, the strengthening and subsequent abuse of authority, the subjugation of the civil service, the affinity for spectacle, and the insistence that the leader, whether Der Führer or Il Duce, could do no wrong.

Existen dos tipos de fascistas: los que dan órdenes y los que las acatan. El apoyo popular da al fascismo las piernas que necesita para caminar, los pulmones de los que se sirve para gritar y la musculatura en la que descansa la amenaza que representa; pero eso en todo caso sería el fascismo de cuello para abajo. Si se quiere sembrar la tiranía sirviéndose de los miedos y esperanzas del ciudadano medio, se necesita dinero, ambición e ideas perversas.

To hold the line, we must recognize that despots rarely reveal their intentions and that leaders who begin well frequently become more authoritarian the longer they hold power.

he arrived in the nation's highest office without ever having won a majority vote

Thomas Edison hailed him as the "genius of the modern age"; Gandhi, as a "superman." Winston Churchill pledged to stand by him in his "struggle against the bestial appetites of Leninism." Newspapers in Rome, host to the Vatican, referred to him as "the incarnation of God." In the end, people who had worshipped [Benito Mussolini's] every move hung his corpse upside down next to his mistress's near a gas station in Milan.

Earlier, I cited Oswald Spengler's chilling century-old prophecy that "the era of individualism, liberalism and democracy, of humanitarianism and freedom, is nearing its end. The masses will accept with resignation the victory of the Caesars, the strong men, and will obey them." This is the real danger posed by Putin: that he will be a model for other national leaders who want to retain their grip on power indefinitely, despite political and legal constraints.

Every age has its own Fascism. —PRIMO LEVI