Born in 1883, Benito Mussolini began as a fiery socialist journalist but morphed into Italy’s fascist dictator. Disillusioned by World War I and exploiting national unrest, he founded the National Fascist Party in 1919. His 1922 “March on Rome” secured him Prime Ministership, ushering in an era of totalitarian rule. Democracy was abolished, dissent crushed, and media tightly controlled. Mussolini built a cult of personality around himself, emphasizing nationalism and militarism
1. “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.”
— Benito Mussolini
2. “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”
— Benito Mussolini
3. “Fascism should rightly be called corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power.”
— Benito Mussolini
4. “Liberty is a duty, not a right.”
— Benito Mussolini
5. “You must always be doing things and obviously succeeding. The hard part is to keep people always at the window because of the spectacle you put on for them. And you must do this for years.”
— Benito Mussolini
6. “Socialism is a fraud, a comedy, a phantom, a blackmail.”
— Benito Mussolini
7. “Every anarchist is a baffled dictator.”
— Benito Mussolini
8. “The truth is that men are tired of liberty.”
— Benito Mussolini
9. “If relativism signifies contempt for fixed categories and those who claim to be the bearers of objective immortal truth, then there is nothing more relativistic than Fascist attitudes and activity. From the fact that all ideologies are of equal value, we Fascists conclude that we have the right to create our own ideology and to enforce it with all the energy of which we are capable.”
— Benito Mussolini
10. “We have buried the putrid corpse of liberty.”
— Benito Mussolini
11. “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”
— Benito Mussolini
12. “There is a violence that liberates, and a violence that enslaves; there is a violence that is moral and a violence that is immoral.”
— Benito Mussolini
13. “The function of a citizen and a soldier are inseparable.”
— Benito Mussolini
14. “Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy.”
— Benito Mussolini
15. “In 1914, the socialists exiled me, and in 1915, the syndicalists exiled me. And despite this, by 1919, the Fasces were mine. This was because I had killed the socialists, I had killed the syndicalists. Your enemy’s life is the only thing standing in the way of your victory.”
— Benito Mussolini
16. “A nation of spaghetti eaters cannot restore Roman civilization!”
— Benito Mussolini
17. “Abbiamo dei vecchi e dei nuovi conti da regolare: li regoleremo.”
— Benito Mussolini
18. “We do not argue with those who disagree with us, we destroy them.”
— Benito Mussolini
19. “It is necessary to act, to move, to fight and, if necessary, to die. Neutrals have never dominated events. They have always gone under. It is blood which moves the wheels of history!”
— Benito Mussolini
20. “This is the epitaph I want on my tomb: Here lies one of the most intelligent animals who ever appeared on the face of the earth.”
— Benito Mussolini
21. “Democracy is a kingless regime infested by many kings who are sometimes more exclusive, tyrannical and destructive than one, even if he be a tyrant.”
— Benito Mussolini
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