Joseph Goebbels Quotes

Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.

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.

The war made possible for us the solution of a whole series of problems that could never have been solved in normal times.

It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion.

A Jew is for me an object of disgust. I feel like vomiting when I see one. Christ could not possibly have been a Jew. It is not necessary to prove that scientifically - it is a fact. I do not need to prove this with science or scholarship. It is so!

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 life is worth living. It's not true, what the tired and reactionary say. We're not on this earth to suffer and die. We're here to fulfill a mission.

Man only honors what he conquers or defends.

A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth

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

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.

One can only repeat about air warfare: we are in a position of almost hopeless inferiority and must grin and bear it as we take the blows from the English and the Americans. [Germans in the bombed cities] are gradually beginning to lose their courage. Hell like that is hard to bear for any length of time, especially since the inhabitants along the Rhine and Ruhr see no prospect of improvement.

In the newspapers there is insulting and stirring up hatred. Those irresponsible daubers!

[Hitler thought] that Mussolini was no figure of world history, like der Fuehrer or Stalin.

Faith moves mountains, but only knowledge moves them to the right place.

Man is and remains an animal.Here a beast of prey, there a housepet, but always an animal.

If you repeat a lie often enough it becomes accepted as truth.

We shall go down in history as the greatest statesmen of all time,or as the greatest criminals

There was no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals. For intellectuals would never be converted and would anyway always yield to the stronger, and this will always be "the man in the street." Arguments must therefore be crude, clear and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intellect. Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology.

The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.

Not every item of news should be published. Rather must those who control news policies endeavor to make every item of news serve a certain purpose.

The people's community must not be a mere phrase, but a revolutionary achievement following from the radical carrying out of the basic life needs of the working class. A ruthless battle against corruption! A war against exploitation, freedom for the workers! The elimination of all economic-capitalist influences on national policy...Maintaining a rotten economic system has nothing to do with nationalism, which is an affirmation of the Fatherland. I can love Germany and hate capitalism. Not only can I, I must.

The masses need something that will give them a thrill of horror.

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

Short shrift is made of the Jews in all eastern occupied areas. Tens of thousands of them are liquidated.

Christ cannot possibly have been a Jew. I don't have to prove that scientifically. It's a fact.

The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never escape from it.

This is the secret of propaganda: Those who are to be persuaded by it should be completely immersed in the ideas of the propaganda, without ever noticing that they are being immersed in it.

Every age that has historical status is governed by aristocracies.

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.

During a war, news should be given out for instruction rather than information.

The English follow the principle that when one lies, it should be a big lie, and one should stick to it.

...the rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious.

I'm so despondent about everything. Everything I try goes totally wrong. There's no escape from this hole here. I feel drained. So far, I still haven't found a real purpose in life. Sometimes, I'm afraid to get out of bed in the morning. There's nothing to get up for.

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.

Whoever can conquer the street will one day conquer the state, for every form of power politics and any dictatorship-run state has its roots in the street.

If we have power, we'll never give it up again unless we're carried out of our offices as corpses

We can do without butter, but, despite all our love of peace, not without arms. One cannot shoot with butter, but with guns.

Everything is what you make of it, even yourself.

We shall reach our goal, when we have the power to laugh as we destroy, as we smash, whatever was sacred to us as tradition, as education, and as human affection.

He who cannot hate the devil cannot love God.

We have made the Reich by propaganda

That propaganda is good which leads to success, and that is bad which fails to achieve the desired result. It is not propaganda’s task to be intelligent, its task is to lead to success.

You have nothing to fear, if you have nothing to hide

If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.

Every age that has historical status is governed by aristocracies.Aristocracy with the meaning - the best are ruling.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.

If we are attacked we can only defend ourselves with guns not with butter.

Photography today is accomplishing a lofty mission in which every German should collaborate by buying a camera. The German people is ahead of every other in the technical domain and, thanks to its exceptional qualities, the small camera has conquered the whole world... Much is at stake here from the point of view of popular consumer goods and, furthermore, photography has a particularly important political role to play. (Addressing the Berlin Photography Fair, 1933)