![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Interesting quote of the day
.
"But as soon as setbacks occurred he suffered shipwreck, like most untrained people. Then his ignorance of the rules of the game was revealed as another kind of incompetence; then his defects were no longer strengths. The greater the failures became, the more obstinately his incurable amateurishness came to the fore. The tendency to wild decisions had long been his forte; now it speeded his downfall."
-- Albert Speer, speaking of Hitler's blundering propensity for making bad decisions which led to disaster after disaster
Here are some more:
"The departure from reality, which was visibly spreading like a contagion, was no peculiarity of the National Socialist regime. But in normal circumstances people who turn their backs on reality are soon set straight by the mockery and criticism of those around them, which makes them aware they have lost credibility. In the Third Reich there were no such correctives, especially for those who belonged to the upper stratum. On the contrary, every self-deception was multiplied as in a hall of mirrors, becoming a repeatedly confirmed picture of a fantastical dream world which no longer bore any relationship to the grim outside world."
---
"On July 26, 1944, Hitler boasted to the heads of industry: 'All I know is that unprecedentedly strong nerves and unprecedented resolution are necessary if a leader is to survive in times such as these and make decisions which concern our very existence.... Any other man in my place would have been unable to do what I have done; his nerves would not have been strong enough.'"
---
"His illusions and wish-dreams were a direct outgrowth of his unrealistic mode of working and thinking. Hitler actually knew nothing about his enemies and even refused to use the information that was available to him. Instead, he trusted his inspirations, no matter how inherently contradictory they might be, and these inspirations were governed by extreme contempt for and underestimation of the others."
---
"With a minimum of effort we can liberate Persia and Iraq. The Indians will hail our divisions enthusiastically."
--Speer, quoting Hitler from 1942
---
"In keeping with his character, Hitler gladly sought advice from persons who saw the situation even more optimistically and delusively than he himself."
-- noting Hitler's behavior in 1942, when the Russians began turning the tide against Germany
---
"At any rate, the more inexorably events moved toward catastrophe, the more inflexible he became, the more rigidly convinced that everything he decided on was right."
---
"Our generals are making their old mistakes again. They always overestimate the strength of the Russians.... Besides, how badly Russian officers are trained! No offensive can be organized with such officers. We know what it takes! In the short or long run the Russians will simply come to a halt. They'll run down. Meanwhile we shall throw in a few fresh divisions; that will put things right."
-- quoting Hitler in the midst of the successful Russian winter offensive of 1942/1943. Stalingrad fell to the Russians a few weeks later.
---
"Now he scoffed at the various services, calling them all incompetent, and, growing more and more heated, attacked intelligence in general."
-- speaking of Hitler's disdain of intelligence professionals, who often failed to tell him what he wanted to hear
---
"I often feel that we will have to undergo all the trials the devil and hell can devise before we achieve Final Victory.... I believe that he who fights valiantly obeying the laws which a god has established and who never capitulates but instead gathers his forces time after time and always pushes forward--such a man will not be abandoned by the Lawgiver. Rather, he will ultimately receive the blessing of Providence. And that blessing has been imparted to all great spirits in history."
-- again quoting Hitler's speech to German industrialists on June 26, 1944, three weeks after the Allied D-Day landings
---
"I can only explain Hitler's rigid attitude on the grounds that he made himself believe in his ultimate victory. In a sense he was worshipping himself. He was forever holding up to himself a mirror in which he saw not only himself but also the confirmation of his mission by divine Providence.... He was by nature a religious man, but his capacity for belief had been perverted into belief in himself."
---
"The church is certainly necessary for the people. It is a strong and conservative element."
-- quoting Hitler, who was both a teetotaler and a vegetarian, and who cleverly manipulated socially conservative forces to rise to power
---
"In his speech to the editors in chief of the German press Hitler described what he considered to be the proper method of propaganda for creating war readiness: 'Certain events should be presented in such a light that unconsciously the masses will automatically come to the conclusion: If there's no way to redress this matter pleasantly, then it will have to be done by force: we can't possibly let things go on this way.'"
-- quoting Hitler in 1938 during preparations to launch World War II
Don't you just love history?
"But as soon as setbacks occurred he suffered shipwreck, like most untrained people. Then his ignorance of the rules of the game was revealed as another kind of incompetence; then his defects were no longer strengths. The greater the failures became, the more obstinately his incurable amateurishness came to the fore. The tendency to wild decisions had long been his forte; now it speeded his downfall."
-- Albert Speer, speaking of Hitler's blundering propensity for making bad decisions which led to disaster after disaster
Here are some more:
"The departure from reality, which was visibly spreading like a contagion, was no peculiarity of the National Socialist regime. But in normal circumstances people who turn their backs on reality are soon set straight by the mockery and criticism of those around them, which makes them aware they have lost credibility. In the Third Reich there were no such correctives, especially for those who belonged to the upper stratum. On the contrary, every self-deception was multiplied as in a hall of mirrors, becoming a repeatedly confirmed picture of a fantastical dream world which no longer bore any relationship to the grim outside world."
---
"On July 26, 1944, Hitler boasted to the heads of industry: 'All I know is that unprecedentedly strong nerves and unprecedented resolution are necessary if a leader is to survive in times such as these and make decisions which concern our very existence.... Any other man in my place would have been unable to do what I have done; his nerves would not have been strong enough.'"
---
"His illusions and wish-dreams were a direct outgrowth of his unrealistic mode of working and thinking. Hitler actually knew nothing about his enemies and even refused to use the information that was available to him. Instead, he trusted his inspirations, no matter how inherently contradictory they might be, and these inspirations were governed by extreme contempt for and underestimation of the others."
---
"With a minimum of effort we can liberate Persia and Iraq. The Indians will hail our divisions enthusiastically."
--Speer, quoting Hitler from 1942
---
"In keeping with his character, Hitler gladly sought advice from persons who saw the situation even more optimistically and delusively than he himself."
-- noting Hitler's behavior in 1942, when the Russians began turning the tide against Germany
---
"At any rate, the more inexorably events moved toward catastrophe, the more inflexible he became, the more rigidly convinced that everything he decided on was right."
---
"Our generals are making their old mistakes again. They always overestimate the strength of the Russians.... Besides, how badly Russian officers are trained! No offensive can be organized with such officers. We know what it takes! In the short or long run the Russians will simply come to a halt. They'll run down. Meanwhile we shall throw in a few fresh divisions; that will put things right."
-- quoting Hitler in the midst of the successful Russian winter offensive of 1942/1943. Stalingrad fell to the Russians a few weeks later.
---
"Now he scoffed at the various services, calling them all incompetent, and, growing more and more heated, attacked intelligence in general."
-- speaking of Hitler's disdain of intelligence professionals, who often failed to tell him what he wanted to hear
---
"I often feel that we will have to undergo all the trials the devil and hell can devise before we achieve Final Victory.... I believe that he who fights valiantly obeying the laws which a god has established and who never capitulates but instead gathers his forces time after time and always pushes forward--such a man will not be abandoned by the Lawgiver. Rather, he will ultimately receive the blessing of Providence. And that blessing has been imparted to all great spirits in history."
-- again quoting Hitler's speech to German industrialists on June 26, 1944, three weeks after the Allied D-Day landings
---
"I can only explain Hitler's rigid attitude on the grounds that he made himself believe in his ultimate victory. In a sense he was worshipping himself. He was forever holding up to himself a mirror in which he saw not only himself but also the confirmation of his mission by divine Providence.... He was by nature a religious man, but his capacity for belief had been perverted into belief in himself."
---
"The church is certainly necessary for the people. It is a strong and conservative element."
-- quoting Hitler, who was both a teetotaler and a vegetarian, and who cleverly manipulated socially conservative forces to rise to power
---
"In his speech to the editors in chief of the German press Hitler described what he considered to be the proper method of propaganda for creating war readiness: 'Certain events should be presented in such a light that unconsciously the masses will automatically come to the conclusion: If there's no way to redress this matter pleasantly, then it will have to be done by force: we can't possibly let things go on this way.'"
-- quoting Hitler in 1938 during preparations to launch World War II
Don't you just love history?
no subject
no subject
Catherine
no subject
Yes, history repeats itself and we have a lot of Speers running around our own government, doing the will (and evil) of lesser men--all in the spirit of nationalism. I wonder how history will judge them--if we're lucky enough to have history in the future, given the weapons at their disposal and their willingness to blindly use them.