Famous Quotations

"Propaganda is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. If the means achieves the end then the means is good. The new Ministry has no other aim than to unite the nation behind the ideal of the national revolution."

"The press of Italy is free, freer than the press of any other country, so long as it supports the regime"

"The forty-eight hours after the march into the Rhineland were the most nerve-racking in my life. If the French had then marched into the Rhineland, we would have had to withdraw with our tails between our legs."

"To choose one's victims, to prepare one's plan minutely, to slake an implacable vengeance, and then to go to bed... There is nothing sweeter in the world."

"I often think how much easier the world would have been to manage if Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini had been at Oxford."

"It is my unalterable decision to smash Czechoslovakia by military action in the near future"

"In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers."

"You, fearing the supposed danger of war, don't put up any resistance to the aggressor and capitulate yourselves, as well as force others to capitulate. We don't want actual war and therefore resist the aggressor and call upon you to do the same. You think that the aggressor can be appeased with things not belonging to you, and that he will spare your factories, your land and your independence. We consider that the aggressor only understands force"

"This is my last territorial demand in Europe"

"The settlement of the Czechoslovakian problem, which has now been achieved, is in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace. This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. Some of you perhaps, have already heard what it contains. But I would just like to read it to you, We, the German Fuhrer and Chancellor, and the British Prime Minister, have had a further meeting today and are agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for the two countries and for Europe. We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again. We are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with any other questions that may concern our two countries and we are determined to continue our efforts to remove possible sources of difference and thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe."

"My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time...Go home and get a nice quiet sleep."

"I want today to be a prophet again: if international Jewry inside and outside of Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, the result will not be the Bolshevisation of the earth and therefore the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe."

"This night for the first time Polish regular soldiers fired on our own territory. We have now been returning the fire since 5:45 a.m.! Henceforth, bomb will be met with bomb."

"If the blood of France and of Germany flows again, as it did twenty-five years ago, in a longer and even more murderous war, each of the two peoples will fight with confidence in its own victory, but the most certain victors will be the forces of destruction and barbarism."

"I am speaking to you from the cabinet room at 10 Downing Street. This morning the British ambassador in Berlin handed the German government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany."

"It is evil things we shall be fighting against, brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution."

"Where Britain goes, we go; where she stands, we stand."

"In this solemn hour it is a consolation to recall and to dwell upon our repeated efforts for peace. All have been ill-starred, but all have been faithful and sincere."

"We have come to fight on this soil, where the French spirit has never been extinguished. We will not yield, we will not retreat. We will hold this line, and we will drive the enemy back across the Rhine."

"We will fight to the last man, to the last bullet, for our freedom, for our independence."

"Not only you experience this moment with deepest emotion, nay, the entire German nation experiences it with you, and I, too, am aware of the greatness of the hour when I, for the first time, tread on the soil which German settlers occupied five centuries ago and which for five centuries was German, and which henceforth you may rest assured will remain German...."

"There is something phoney about this war."

"We have to kill one another just to satisfy that accursed madman."

"One swift blow to Poland, first by the German Army and then by the Red Army, and nothing was left of this ugly offspring of the Versailles Treaty!"

"Since we cannot move Leningrad ... then we must move the border."

"We have no other choice but to fight for our independence, for our freedom, and for our homes."

"Finland alone, in danger of death, superb, sublime Finland, shows what free men can do"

"Whatever reason Hitler had for not making an immediate endeavour to overwhelm us, one thing is certain - he has missed the bus... Those seven months delay have enabled us to remove weaknesses and so enormously add to our fighting strength that the future can be faced with a calm mind"

"We shall resist the aggressor and safeguard our nation's sovereignty"

"Belgium will defend its neutrality and stand firm against any aggression"

"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."

"France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war."

"When Barbarossa commences, the world will hold its breath and make no comment."

"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms."

"We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job."

"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 struggle is not only against arms, but against hunger."

"Our troops must hurl themselves with all their means and energy against the enemy and annihilate them in all places where they have violated our frontiers."

"No one has been a more consistent opponent of Communism than I have for the last 25 years. I will unsay no word that I have spoken about it. But all this fades away before the spectacle which is now unfolding."

"We have but one aim and one single, irrevocable purpose. We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of the Nazi regime. From this nothing will turn us — nothing. We will never parley, we will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang. We shall fight him by land, we shall fight him by sea, we shall fight him in the air, until, with God’s help, we have rid the earth of his shadow."

"The Russian danger is therefore our danger, and the danger of the United States, just as the cause of any Russian fighting for his hearth and home is the cause of free men and free peoples in every quarter of the globe."

"If Hitler invaded Hell, I would at least make a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons."

"Comrades, citizens, brothers and sisters, men of our Army and Navy! I speak to you, my friends! A serious threat hangs over our country. It can only be dispersed by the combined efforts of the military and industrial might of the nation. There is no room for the timid or the coward, for deserters or spreaders of panic, and a merciless struggle must be waged against such people. We must destroy spies, agents provocateurs, and enemy parachutists. Anyone who hinders our defence must be shot without mercy. The enemy must not find a single railway engine, not a wagon, not a pound of bread, nor a glass of petrol. All farms must hand over their herds to official bodies and be sent to the rear of the USSR. Everything else that could be useful to the enemy must be destroyed. The entire Soviet people, in the cities and villages, must unite in a single fist to defeat the fascist invaders and defend our homeland. The fate of the Soviet Union and the future of the working people of the whole world depends on this struggle. We shall fight to the last drop of blood, and we shall win."

"The struggle against Russia must be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful, and unrelenting harshness."

"The National Defence Committee appeals to all the workers of Moscow to observe order, remain calm and give their entire support to the Red Army in the defence of the capital."

"The German-fascist invaders want to destroy the Soviet people and enslave them. But they will not succeed. The enemy shall be crushed. Victory will be ours."

"Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."

"Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God."

"The fact that the Japanese Government, which has been negotiating for years with this man Roosevelt, has finally taken action, fills us all, the German people and myself, with deep satisfaction."

"In our resolve must be the knowledge that no matter what the trials and the difficulties, America will endure and triumph."

"Australia and New Zealand are now threatened by the might of the Imperial Japanese forces, and both of them should know that any resistance is futile."

"The war can only end with the complete destruction of the enemy."

"The enemy is trying to break our will, but we will not be broken."

"This war no longer bears the characteristics of former inter-European conflicts. It is one of those elemental conflicts which usher in a new millennium and which shake the world once in a thousand years."

"We are all in this together, and we must all do our part to ensure victory."

"Italy will rise again, and we will achieve great victories."

"The war will be decided by the strength of our arms and the will of our people."

"We will defend our motherland with all our might and never give up."

"The troops…Really believed that victory was possible – unlike the senior commanders who knew the facts."