19 Quotes by Sebastian Haffner

A única coisa que várias vezes tirou Churchill do bom caminho foram paixões políticas e aventuras militares - jamais eróticas. Enquanto político, Churchill nunca foi um calculista frio, mas antes caloroso e apaixonado como poucos. É provável que isso acontecesse porque todo o calor, paixão e mesmo delicadeza que os outros consumiam nas suas vidas privadas acumulavam-se, no caso de Churchill, de forma concentrada e genuína na sua pessoa e acções públicas.

… 在那些比較感性、隨波逐流、思想比較單純的人群當中，還普遍出現了一種較原始的神祕主義想法。那就彷彿一個被擊敗的部落拋棄自己乏善可陳的部落神祇，轉而信奉敵對部落的神明，將之做為自己的保護神。長久以來為人所信奉的聖馬克思並無助益，聖希特勒顯然要來得更為有力。於是我們把祭壇上的聖馬克思像搗毀，把聖希特勒的神像供奉上去。讓我們重新學習祈禱的方法，將「一切都是資本家的錯」更改為「一切都是猶太人的錯」。或許這麼一來我們就可以得到救贖。

Graças a Churchill, não foi a Alemanha que passou a dominar a Europa, mas sim os Estados Unidos e a Rússia. Graças a Churchill, o fascismo deixou de desempenhar qualquer papel significativo no mundo, ficando o liberalismo e o socialismo a travar a luta pela primazia na política interna dos países. (...) Churchill não desejava grande parte destes cenários, embora aceitasse como mal menor num contexto mais pessimista.

One cannot overstate the childishness of the ideas that feed and stir the masses. Real ideas must as a rule be simplified to the level of a child’s understanding if they are to arouse the masses to historic actions.

It was at this time that, invisibly and unnoticed, the Germans divided into those who later became Nazis and those who would remain non-Nazis.

Comradeship always sets the cultural tone at the lowest possible level, accessible to everyone. It cannot tolerate discussion; in the chemical solution of comradeship, discussion immediately takes on the color of whining and grumbling. It becomes a mortal sin. Comradeship admits no thoughts, just mass feelings of the most primitive sort.

Mass assemblies are quite incapable of independent action. Decisions that influence the course of history arise out of the individual experiences of thousands or millions of individuals.

Saint Marx, in whom one had always believed, had not helped. Saint Hitler was obviously more powerful. So let’s destroy the images of Saint Marx on the altars and replace them with images of Saint Hitler. Let us learn to pray: “It is the Jews’ fault” rather than “It is the capitalists’ fault.” Perhaps that will redeem us.

A childish illusion, fixed in the minds of all children born in a certain decade and hammered home for four years, can easily reappear as a deadly serious political ideology twenty years later.