António de Oliveira Salazar

“Portugal, under the leadership of Salazar, became an island of peace and liberty in Europe during the dark years of World War II and its aftermath.”

“He always led a very simple and austere life and resisted honors, monuments, distinctions, and special treatment, even in his own home parish (Vimieiro), where he had a small vineyard and liked to withdraw to tend it on holidays. Salazar possessed great personal charm, he knew how to listen, and his capacity for work and attention to detail were admirable.”

“Salazar was, undoubtedly, one of the most remarkable men in the history of Portugal and possessed a quality that remarkable men do not always have: the right intention.”

“Though he never took Holy Orders he continued to live the solitary, ascetic life of a priest – never marrying, and devoting all his time, first to his academic career as an economist at Coimbra University, and later to running the government. He was cold, intellectual, and dedicated – a man of painful reserve: an almost Manichean fastidiousness, implying perhaps a distaste for sex, and always a total involvement with his job.”

“[Salazar] didn't look like a regular dictator. Rather, he appeared a modest, quiet, and highly intelligent gentleman and scholar […] literally dragged from a professorial chair of political economy in the venerable University of Coimbra a dozen years previously in order to straighten out Portugal's finances.”

“The most complete statesman, the one most worthy of respect, that I have known is Salazar. I regard him as an extraordinary personality for his intelligence, his political sense and his humility. His only defect is probably his modesty.”

“Obviously, I'll dismiss him.”

“No one has to thank me for accepting the burden, because it is so big sacrifice for me to please or I would not do for kindness to anyone. I do this to for my country, as a duty of conscience, coldly, calmly completed.”

“Those who can, must obey.”

“Portugal was born in the shadow of the Catholic Church and religion, from the beginning it was the formative element of the soul of the nation and the dominant trait of character of the Portuguese people.”

“The day I leave the power, inside my pockets will only be dust.”

“Definitely, decisively, the Nation, for us...and even for them.”

“The discussions have revealed the mistake, but not explained the problem, since even if you know what you will understand it for democracy.”

“State is the nation socially organized.”

“Teach your sons to work, teach your daughters modesty, teach all the virtue of economy. And if not make them saints, at least make them Christians.”

“The United Nations is useless...and also harmful. It is a land that flowers demagoguery with a bunch of newborn countries, devoid of any tradition.”

“Who is not patriotic can not be considered Portuguese.”

“I have the grace of providence to be poor.”

“All for the nation, nothing against the nation.”

“Do not discuss God and his reason, does not discuss the motherland and the nation.”