Joseph Goebbels

Dr. Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) was Adolf Hitler's Propaganda Minister in Nazi Germany. He also served as Chancellor for one day, following Hitler's death. He was known for his zealous and energetic oratory, virulent anti-Semitism, and perfection of the so-called Big Lie technique of mass propaganda.

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"Success is the important thing. Propaganda is not a matter for average minds, but rather a matter for practitioners. It is not supposed to be lovely or theoretically correct. I do not care if I give wonderful, aesthetically elegant speeches, or speak so that women cry. The point of a political speech is to persuade people of what we think right. I speak differently in the provinces than I do in Berlin, and when I speak in Bayreuth, I say different things than I say in the Pharus Hall. That is a matter of practice, not of theory.We do not want to be a movement of a few straw brains, but rather a movement that can conquer the broad masses. Propaganda should be popular, not intellectually pleasing. It is not the task of propaganda to discover intellectual truths."
- speech by Joseph Goebbels on 9 January 1928 to an audience of party members at the so-called "Hochschule für Politik", a series of training talks for Nazi party members in Berlin
- quoted in "Erkenntnis und Propaganda," Signale der neuen Zeit. 25 ausgewählte Reden von Dr. Joseph Goebbels (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., 1934), pp. 28-52
- The Pharus Hall was a meeting hall the Nazis often used in Berlin.

"That is of course rather painful for those involved. One should not as a rule reveal one's secrets, since one does not know if and when one may need them again. The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous."
- "Aus Churchills Lügenfabrik" ("Churchill's Lie Factory"), 12 January 1941, Die Zeit ohne Beispiel (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., 1941), pp. 364-369
- Often misquoted as: "The bigger the lie, the more it will be believed."

"Berndt reicht mir eine Ausarbeitung über die von uns zu betreibende okkultistische Propaganda ein. Hier wird in der Tat Einiges geleistet. Die Amerikaner und Engländer fallen ja vorzüglich auf eine solche Art von Propaganda herein. Wir nehmen alle irgendwie zur Verfügung stehenden Kronzeugen der okkulten Weissagung als Mithelfer in Anspruch. Nostradamus muß wieder einmal daran glauben."
- English: "Berndt handed in a plan for the occultist propaganda to be carried on by us. We are getting somewhere. The Americans and English fall easily to this kind of propaganda. We are therefore pressing into service all star witnesses of occult prophecy. Nostradamus must once again submit to being quoted."
- diary of Joseph Goebbels, 19 May 1942, concerning the use of Nostradamus's famous "Hister" quatrain
- as displayed and translated in Nazis: The Occult Conspiracy, Discovery Channel

"I’m looking for the teacher who is unaffected enough to be great, and great enough to be unaffected."
- from his book "Michael - a German fate in diary notes"

"Everything is what you make out of it, even yourself."
- from his book "Michael - a German fate in diary notes"

"Man only honors what he conquers or defends."
- from his book "Michael - a German fate in diary notes"

"My God is a God of strength. HE does not like the smell of frankincense and the dishonoring crawl of the crowd. I stand before HIM proudly, with the head held high, like HE created me, and I confess gladly and freely before HIM. The true German seeks God for all of his life. Miserable is the exhausted man who came to an end."
- from his book "Michael - a German fate in diary notes"

"To be modern only means to fill new forms with eternal truths."
- from his book "Michael - a German fate in diary notes"

"At night I sit in my chamber and read the bible. Far in the distance roars the sea. Then I lie down and think for a long time about the calm and pale man from Nazareth."
- from his book "Michael - a German fate in diary notes"

"We shall be quiet and wait till a star falls from heaven. Can you see, how above one light appears after the other and they together form a dome! We sit in silence and fold our hands in prayer. We shall be quiet and wait until a star falls from heaven."
- from his book "Michael - a German fate in diary notes"

"A child laughs when it feels joy and cries when it feels pain. Both things, laughing and crying it does with its whole heart. We all became so tall and so clever. We know so much and we have read so much. But one thing we forgot: to laugh and cry like the children do."
- from his book "Michael - a German fate in diary notes"

"Devotion, fervor, longing! Those are my pillars. We have to be the bridge to the future."
- from his book "Michael - a German fate in diary notes"

"Great hour! Spent together, rejoicing and dreaming. Days and years are gathering. We are a still island in the ocean of the world. Beginning and end! Border between life and eternity! Euphoria, fulfillment, existence!"
- from his book "Michael - a German fate in diary notes"

"Once, we all have to be redeemed. The world is pulling with a thousand strings. We sin because of indifference and negligence and heap new guilt on the old original one. Our life is a chain of sin and expiation controlled by a destiny that can not be understood."
- from his book "Michael - a German fate in diary notes"

"I believe in God. When everything collapses, we grip the last hold, we look from the secure haven how the godless society of the old, holy Europe falls apart. May the game begin."
- from his book "Michael - a German fate in diary notes"

Property is theft - as long as it's not mine: Marx."

"The war we are fighting until victory or the bitter end is in its deepest sense and war between Christ and Marx.

Christ: the principle of love.

Marx: the principle of hate."

"But the most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success."
- actually from "War Propaganda", in volume 1, chapter 6 of Mein Kampf (1925), by Adolph Hitler