Edgar Ansel Mowrer

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“Even if the more apocalyptic Germans were right and the German disorder really constituted "a return to primordial instinct, to the mystic chaos of creation out of which the great ecstasies of revolutions and religions arise," that could not alter the fact that the prerequisite of any true creation is freedom.”

“Did he believe all that he said? The question is inapplicable to this sort of personality. Subjectively Adolf Hitler was, in my opinion, entirely sincere even in his self-contradictions. For his is a humorless mind that simply excludes the need for consistency that might distress more intellectual types. To an actor the truth is anything that lies in its effect: if it makes the right impression it is true.”

“Five groups had ruled pre-war Germany: the twenty-odd sovereigns with the Kaiser at their head, the Army officers, the officials, the aristocratic land-owners and the possessors of heavy industry. Amid a people conditioned to obedience, they alone knew what they wanted and were not afraid to take it. An experimental Republic that did not break the political necks of nearly all five groups was, in time, almost bound once more to fall under their rule. Such is the law of the jungle.”

“He had a gift for saying unpleasant things in the most charming manner.”