Joseph Goebbels

The truth is always stronger than the lie.

— Joseph Goebbels

The social is a stopgap. Socialism is the ideology of the future.

— Joseph Goebbels

Capitalism is the immoral distribution of capital… Germany will become free at that moment when the thirty millions on the left and the thirty millions on the right make common cause. Only one movement is capable of doing this: National Socialism, embodied in one Führer – Adolf Hitler.

— Joseph Goebbels

Lenin is the greatest man, second only to Hitler, and that the difference between Communism and the Hitler faith is very slight.

— Joseph Goebbels

The money pigs of capitalist democracy… Money has made slaves of us… Money is the curse of mankind. It smothers the seed of everything great and good. Every penny is sticky with sweat and blood.

— Joseph Goebbels

One class has fulfilled its historical mission and is about to yield to another. The bourgeoisie has to yield to the working class ... Whatever is about to fall should be pushed. We are all soldiers of the revolution. We want the workers' victory over filthy lucre. That is socialism.

— Joseph Goebbels

We enter the Reichstag to arm ourselves with democracy’s weapons. If democracy is foolish enough to give us free railway passes and salaries, that is its problem... We are coming neither as friends or neutrals. We come as enemies! As the wolf attacks the sheep, so come we.

— Joseph Goebbels

The political bourgeoisie is about to leave the stage of history. In its place advance the oppressed producers of the head and hand, the forces of Labor (Arbeitertum), to being their historical mission.

— Joseph Goebbels

We are not a charitable institution but a Party of revolutionary socialists.

— Joseph Goebbels

[T]he NSDAP is the German Left. We despise bourgeois nationalism.

— Joseph Goebbels

The best propaganda is that which, as it were, works invisibly, penetrates the whole of life without the public having any knowledge of the propagandistic initiative.

— Joseph Goebbels

The nation and the government in Germany are one thing. The will of the people is the will of the government and vice versa. The modern structure of the German State is a higher form of democracy [ennobled democracy] in which, by virtue of the people’s mandate, the government is exercised authoritatively while there is no possibility for parliamentary interference to obliterate and render ineffective the execution of the nation’s will.

— Joseph Goebbels

He who defends the Jew harms his own people.

— Joseph Goebbels

Germany, on the other hand, has based its domestic policies on new and modern social principles. That is why it is a danger to English plutocracy. It is also why English capitalists want to destroy Hitlerism. They see Hitlerism as all the generous social reforms that have occurred in Germany since 1933. The English plutocrats rightly fear that good things are contagious, that they could endanger English capitalism.

— Joseph Goebbels

To be a socialist is to submit the I to the thou; socialism is sacrificing the individual to the whole.

— Joseph Goebbels

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, it should be a big lie, and one should stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.

— Joseph Goebbels

I ask you: Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even yet imagine?

— Joseph Goebbels

If Germany stays united and marches to the rhythm of its revolutionary socialist outlook, it will be unbeatable. Our indestructible will to life, and the driving force of the Führer’s personality guarantee this.

— Joseph Goebbels

We and we alone [the Nazis] have the best social welfare measures. Everything is done for the nation. . . .The Jews are the incarnation of capitalism.

— Joseph Goebbels

If the German people lay down their weapons, the Soviets, according to the agreement between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, would occupy all of East and Southeast Europe along with the greater part of the Reich. An iron curtain would fall over this enormous territory controlled by the Soviet Union, behind which nations would be slaughtered.

— Joseph Goebbels

She has confessed her parentage to me. Since then, the first enchantment ruined.

— Joseph Goebbels

What does Christianity mean today? National Socialism is a religion. All we lack is a religious genius capable of uprooting outmoded religious practices and putting new ones in their place. We lack traditions and ritual. One day soon National Socialism will be the religion of all Germans. My Party is my church, and I believe I serve the Lord best if I do his will, and liberate my oppressed people from the fetters of slavery. That is my gospel.

— Joseph Goebbels

. . . it would be better for us to go down with Bolshevism than live in eternal slavery under capitalism.

— Joseph Goebbels

The Fuhrer is deeply religious, though completely anti-Christian. He views Christianity as a symptom of decay. Rightly so. It is a branch of the Jewish race.

— Joseph Goebbels

The Führer once again expressed his determination to clean up the Jews in Europe pitilessly. There must be no squeamish sentimentalism about it. The Jews have deserved the catastrophe that has now overtaken them. Their destruction will go hand in hand with the destruction of our enemies. We must hasten this process with cold ruthlessness.

— Joseph Goebbels

A judgment is being visited upon the Jews that, while barbaric, is fully deserved by them. The prophecy which the Führer made about them for having brought on a new world war is beginning to come true in a most terrible manner. One must not be sentimental in these matters. If we did not fight the Jews, they would destroy us. It's a life-and-death struggle between the Aryan race and the Jewish bacillus.

— Joseph Goebbels

I have devoted exhaustive study to the Protocols of Zion. In the past objection was always made that they were not suited to present day propaganda. In reading them now I find that we can use them very well. The Protocols of Zion are as modern today as they were when published the first time! At noon I mentioned this to the Führer. He believed the protocols to be absolutely genuine!

— Joseph Goebbels

I dedicate this book to the memory of my friend Richard Flisges, who died as a brave soldier of work in a mine at Schliersee on the 19th of July 1923.

— Joseph Goebbels

A mother who is not everything for her children: a friend, a teacher, a confidant, a source of joy and founded pride, inducement and soothing, reconciliator, judge and forgiver, that mother obviously chose the wrong job.

— Joseph Goebbels

I'm looking for the teacher who is simple enough to be great, and great enough to be simple.

— Joseph Goebbels

Everything is what you make of it, even yourself.

— Joseph Goebbels

One only honours what one conquers or defends.

— Joseph Goebbels

When I sit near the ocean in the morning and write my verses and breathe the salty wind which is coming from the water, I rejoice in God and I am blissful, as I was as a child.

— Joseph Goebbels

A nation without a religion - that is like a man without breath.

— Joseph Goebbels

If Christ came back he would drive his treacherous servants out of the temple with a whip.

— Joseph Goebbels

Mozart didn't need a scheme for his music. He played and sang with the heavenly lightness of a child.

— Joseph Goebbels

I should like to be a parson on this island. Explain the Sermon on the Mount to ordinary people and let the world be the world.

— Joseph Goebbels

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, as HE created me, and I profess gladly and freely before HIM. The true German seeks God for all of his life.

— Joseph Goebbels

To be modern only means to fill new forms with eternal truths.

— Joseph Goebbels

I feel how inside of me word follows word and thought follows thought, growing to the last act of creation. Holy hour of bringing forth, you are pain and pleasure, and a longing for form, image and essence. I am only the instrument that God uses to sing his song. I am only the vessel that nature smilingly fills with new wine.

— Joseph Goebbels

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.

— Joseph Goebbels

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.

— Joseph Goebbels

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 have all become so tall and so clever. We know so much and we have read so much. But one thing we have forgot: to laugh and cry like the children do.

— Joseph Goebbels

Devotion, fervor, longing! Those are my pillars. We have to be the bridge to the future.

— Joseph Goebbels

Dostoyevsky is ahead of his time - a few daring steps. You follow him, dizzying, fearful, incredulous; but you follow. He won't let loose, you have to follow. … You simply have to call him unique. He comes from nowhere and belongs nowhere. And yet he is always a Russian.

— Joseph Goebbels

The night is my best friend. It calms the storm in my soul and it lets the guiding stars rise.

— Joseph Goebbels

I put down the oars and float endlessly as if to the eternal shore. Blue light of the moon shines on my sail. My boat is gliding to a secure haven. Only silent waves break against it. Deepest silence surrounds me and my soul builds a golden bridge to a star.

— Joseph Goebbels

We have had much to bear already. And still more will we have to bear. Let us thank God for being young.

— Joseph Goebbels

That's what the democratic parties personify: business groups! Nothing more. 'Weltanschauung? What kind of reactionary expression is that? Honor, loyalty, creed, convictions? Man, you are living in yesterday!'

— Joseph Goebbels

To be a socialist means to let the ego serve the neighbour, to sacrifice the self for the whole. In its deepest sense socialism equals service. The individual refrains and the commonwealth demands. Property is theft – so says the mob. Each to his own – so says the personality.

— Joseph Goebbels

Every age that has historical status is governed by aristocracies.Peoples do never govern themselves. That lunacy was concocted by liberalism. Behind its "people's sovereignty" the slyest cheaters are hiding, who don't want to be recognized.

— Joseph Goebbels

How beautiful life is! Music and dancing! The violins are sobbing. The first stopper of a bottle of champagne bangs. And now there's a mad singing and shouting. Everybody joins in and sings and shouts! Embracing, friendship, eternal friendship! How beautiful the women are! Dressed in black and red. But you are the prettiest, Hertha! … Hey, you grumblers, go to hell! Music and dancing. The violins are sobbing. Women dressed in black and red. But you are the prettiest, Hertha!

— Joseph Goebbels

O this world is beautiful because of you! To love somebody means that we're closer to God.

— Joseph Goebbels

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!

— Joseph Goebbels

When you stroll through Munich it can happen that you suddenly stand in front of an old house, an idyllically-dreaming church that smiles like a friendly anachronism into our modern time.

— Joseph Goebbels

That was my longing: for the mountains' divine solitude and peacefulness, for pure, white snow. I got tired of the big city. I am at home again in the mountains. There I sit for many hours amid their white virginity and find myself again.

— Joseph Goebbels

Old Christmas Songs. I feel something like a longing for a lost homeland. We are giving gifts to each other. A beautiful, old New Testament from Hertha Holk is my greatest joy. I thank her for being my solace and my strength.

— Joseph Goebbels

The end of the year! I draw the balance. Inquiry of conscience and request to the Spirit for progress and maturity. I grew stronger inside of me and I strive for a clearer knowledge and stronger faith.

— Joseph Goebbels

Christ is the genius of love and as such the most diametric antipole to Jewry, which is the incarnation of hate. … Christ was the first anti-Jewish opponent of stature. … The Jew is the lie that became flesh. He nailed Christ to the cross, and thus for the first time in history nailed the eternal truth to the cross.

— Joseph Goebbels

Hereafter 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 ruled by an incomprehensible providence.

— Joseph Goebbels

The night folds her trembling hands over a weary world. Out of a pale blue rises the shining moon. My thoughts are flying to the stars like lonely swans.

— Joseph Goebbels

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.

— Joseph Goebbels

Give your goods to the poor: Christ. Property is theft - as long as it's not mine: Marx.

— Joseph Goebbels

The war we are fighting until victory or the bitter end is in its deepest sense a war between Christ and Marx. Marx: the principle of hate.

— Joseph Goebbels