All Quotes

"It is humiliating to remain with our hands folded while others write history. It matters little who wins. To make a people great it is necessary to send them to battle even if you have to kick them in the pants. That is what I shall do."

"The watchword is only one, categorical and challenging for everyone. It already flies across and lights the hearts from the Alps to the Indian Ocean: Winning! And we will win, in order to finally give a long period of peace with justice to Italy, to Europe, to the world. **From the declaration of war's announce, 10 June 1940"

"We go to battle against the plutocratic and reactionary democracies of the west… This gigantic struggle is nothing other than a phase in the logical development of our revolution; it is the struggle of peoples that are poor but rich in workers against the exploiters who hold on ferociously to the monopoly off all the riches and all the gold of the earth…"

"When the war is over, in the world's social revolution that will be followed by a more equitable distribution of the earth's riches, due account must be kept of the sacrifices and of the discipline maintained by the Italian workers. The Fascist revolution will make another decisive step to shorten social distances."

"War is the normal state of the people."

"Better to live a day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep."

"Some still ask of us: what do you want? We answer with three words that summon up our entire program. Here they are…Italy, Republic, Socialization. . .Socialization is no other than the implantation of Italian Socialism…"

"We are fighting to impose a higher social justice. The others are fighting to maintain the privileges of caste and class. We are proletarian nations that rise up against the plutocrats."

"For this I have been and am a socialist. The accusation of inconsistency has no foundation. My conduct has always been straight in the sense of looking at the substance of things and not to the form. I adapted socialisticamente to reality. As the evolution of society belied many of the prophecies of Marx, the true socialism folded from possible to probable. The only feasible socialism socialisticamente is corporatism, confluence, balance and justice interests compared to the collective interest."

"Shoot me in the chest."

"You want to know what fascism is like? It is like your New Deal!"

"I owe most to Georges Sorel. This master of syndicalism by his rough theories of revolutionary tactics has contributed most to form the discipline, energy and power of the fascist cohorts."

"[Marx was] the magnificent philosopher of working class violence."

"In the whole negative part, we are alike. We and the Russians are against liberals, against democrats, against parliament."

"The socialist revolution was a pure and simple question of ‘force.’… Between the [bourgeoisie and the proletariat] no accord is possible. One must disappear. The weaker will be ‘eliminated.’ The class struggle is therefore a question of ‘force.’"

"The outbreak of a socialist revolution in one country will cause the others to imitate it or so to strengthen the proletariat as to prevent its national bourgeoisie from attempting any armed intervention."

"One of the principal motifs of Nietzsche’s work is that Kant had not carried out a true critique because he was not able to pose the problem of critique in terms of values."

"The struggle between the two worlds [Fascism and Democracy] can permit no compromises. The new cycle which begins with the ninth year of the Fascist regime places the alternative in even greater relief — either we or they, either their ideas or ours, either our State or theirs!"

"Fortunately the Italian people has not yet accustomed itself to eat many times a day, and possessing a modest level of living, it feels deficiency and suffering less."

"I am making superhuman efforts to educate this people. When they have learnt to obey, they will believe what I tell them."

"I bequeath the republic to the republicans and not to the monarchists, and the work of social reform to the socialist and not to the middle class."

"For my part I prefer fifty thousand rifles to five million votes."

"Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy. You in America will see that some day."

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power."

"It may be expected that this will be a century of authority, a century of the Left, a century of Fascism."

"The best blood will at some time get into a fool or a mosquito."

"If I advance; follow me! If I retreat; kill me! If I die; avenge me!"

"He never killed anyone, he sent people on holiday to confine them."

"Obviously the government of [Mussolini's] time, out of fear that German power might lead to complete victory, preferred to ally itself with Hitler's Germany rather than opposing it … The racial laws were the worst fault of Mussolini as a leader, who in so many other ways did well."

"Stalin will never make socialism; rather Mussolini will."

"Mussolini was the son of a blacksmith, Hitler was the son of a house painter and I am the son of a miller."

"Long live Mussolini! Long live socialism!"

"Which European politician of the first half of the twentieth century could be relied on to read the philosophical and literary works of his co-nationals and send their authors notes of criticism and congratulation? Who, at the time of profound crisis and despite his evident ill health, kept on his desk a copy of the works of Socrates and Plato, annotated in his own hand? Who declared publicly that he loved trees and anxiously quizzed his bureaucracy about storm damage to the environment? Who, in his table talk while he was entrenched in power, was fascinated by the task of tracing his intellectual antecedents?... Who seemed almost always ready to grant an interview and, having done so, was especially pleased by the prospect of talking about contemporary political and philosophical ideas? Who left more than 44 volumes of his collected works? Who claimed with an element of truth that money never dirtied his hands? Who could conduct a conversation in three languages apart from his own?... The somewhat surprising answer to all these questions is Benito Mussolini, Duce of Italian Fascism and dictator of Italy from 1922 (or 1925) to 1945 (or 1943)."

"As the elections were being held, he published in Gerarchla a disquisition on Machiavelli. He had, he remarked, just re-read the Florentine writer's corpus, although, he added modestly, he had not fully plumbed the secondary literature in Italy and abroad. Machiavelli's thought was, Mussolini announced, more alive now than ever. His pessimism about human nature was eternal in its acuity. Individuals simply could not be relied on voluntarily to 'obey the law, pay their taxes and serve in war'. No well-ordered society could want the people to be sovereign. Machiavelli’s cynical acumen exposed the fatuity of the dreams of the Enlightenment (and of Mussolini’s own political philosophy before 1914)."

"Los Hitler, los Mussolini.../¡Balas! ¡Balas! ¡Balas! ¡Balas!/Las dos víboras de Europa/que con la muerte se pactan."

"The methods of the Duce are not by any means American methods...[but] methods which would certainly not appeal to this country might easily appeal to a people so differently constituted as are the Italians"

"A modern man may disapprove of some of his sweeping reforms, and approve others; but finds it difficult not to admire even where he does not approve."

"[One of the] leading statesmen in the world."

"What a man! I have lost my heart!... Fascism has rendered a service to the entire world... If I were Italian, I am sure I would have been with you entirely from the beginning of your victorious struggle against the bestial appetites and passion of Leninism."

"Mussolini rose from humble origins, made a career in journalism and became a persuasive politician. He created the Fascist Party whose violence intimidated the Italian government into making him Prime Minister. He transformed Italy into a one-party dictatorship. He was a master of propaganda, with grandiose ideas derived from the Roman Empire. Mussolini was fatally convinced that he was always right and that Italy was a great military power. He squandered the country's resources on a useless Empire, then blindly followed Adolf Hitler into the war that led him to disaster. After being dismissed from office, he ran a German puppet regime in northern Italy."

"Unfortunately, I am no superman like Mussolini."

"At Easter 1934 we paid a visit to Rome, where I had an interview with the Duce. I was favourably impressed. There were no histrionics, nor was I obliged, as I had been told would happen, to walk the length of a long room from the door to his desk. He met me at the door and accompanied me to it when I left. We agreed on the importance of rearmament and he laughed when I said that the idea that armaments produced war was as foolish as to think that umbrellas produced rain. Because he laughed at my joke I thought he had a sense of humour and was quite prepared to imagine he had other good qualities. It is too early to pronounce a final verdict upon Mussolini. The more I read about him, especially in the pages of Ciano, the less I like him, but no trustworthy biography has yet been written, so that it is wiser to withhold judgment. He is not, like Hitler, condemned out of his own mouth, nor by the notoriety and magnitude of his evil deeds. It may be that he began well and meant well, like so many of the Caesars before him, but that he ended ill as they did owing to the corruption of power."

"Mussolini is a brilliant thinker whose philosophy, though unorthodox, flows out of the true European tradition. If he is a myth-maker, he is, like Plato's guardians, conscious that "the noble lie" is a lie."

"The truth is probably that since Mussolini's own policy is by nature opportunist and agnostic, he finds it quite impossible to believe in the British faith in a new system of international order."

"Mussolini has the mentality of a gangster."

"The luncheon party [on 24 June 1935] was quite a large one, with ladies present. This occasion displayed to me the astonishing contrast between the two Mussolinis. When alone and in serious discussion, the Duce was calm, relaxed and reasonable, at least in my experience. There were no attitudes or airs. But the moment more than two or three were gathered together the man was transformed, jaw thrust out, eyes rolling and popping, figure strutting and attitudinizing. When luncheon was announced, Mussolini made a imperious gesture towards me and marched on. I hung back, English fashion, waiting for the ladies, and the Duce strode in alone."

"The League's withdrawal of sanctions brought hope to many that good relations between Italy and Britain could now be restored. The argument often put to me was that, if we would only make a concession to the Duce, he would reciprocate and our relations would soon mend. I had little confidence that this would be so, for the reasoning appeared to be founded on a misreading of Mussolini's character. To me, he was a tough and clever opportunist, who would rate concessions as weakness and who cared nothing for the principles of the League or for the Stresa front. He would incline to whichever side seemed to offer him the greater advantages. We could not, for moral and practical reasons, enter such a competition or offer him the plunder he sought; therefore Hitler and Mussolini would inevitably be drawn closer together. The Duce had made his choice between African adventure and European stability. He abandoned Austria when he marched against Abyssinia. Despite rumours, Mussolini and I had no personal quarrel and our relations were not a factor in the unfolding of policy on either side."

"The greatest genius of the modern age."

"Benito Mussolini was the first European leader not only to dispense with multi-party democracy but also to proclaim a new fascist regime. A blacksmith's son, a socialist and the author of two crudely anticlerical books, The Cardinal's Mistress and John Huss the Veracious, Mussolini had switched to nationalism even before the Italian Socialists opposed their country's entry into the First World War. The Roman fasces - the bundle of rods of chastisement that symbolized the power of the state - had been adopted by various pro-war groups; it was one of these that Mussolini joined. Here was the formula for fascism: socialism plus nationalism plus war. After a brief and undistinguished period of military service, Mussolini reverted to journalism, his true métier. But his political moment came with peace. Like their counterparts all over Europe, Italy's political establishment felt vulnerable as the Bolshevik contagion swept into the factories of Turin and the villages of the Po Valley. With his flashy charisma, Mussolini offered an echo of Francesco Crispi, the hero of the previous generation of Italian nationalists. With his newly formed Fasci di Combattimento, he offered muscle in the form of gangs of ex-soldiers, the squadristi."

"Even before his distinctly theatrical March on Rome on October 29,1922 - which was more photo-opportunity than coup, since the fascists lacked the capability to seize power by force - Mussolini was invited to form a government by the king, Victor Emmanuel III, who had declined to impose martial law. The old Liberals were confident they could continue business as usual. They underestimated Mussolini's appetite for power; it was entirely in character that at one point he held seven ministerial portfolios as well as the premiership. The press, the only thing he was competent to control, began to promote him as an omnipotent Duce, but behind the surface glamour there was always the threat of violence. Following the murder of the Socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti in 1924 (almost certainly ordered by Mussolini) political opposition was suppressed. The likes of the Leninist Antonio Gramsci were consigned to prison. Henceforth, the National Fascist Party brooked no competitors. Newspaper editors were required to be fascists, and teachers to swear an oath of loyalty. Parliament and even trade unions continued to exist, but as sham entities, subordinated to Mussolini's dictatorship."