political fun: Hitler quotes that sound like Obama quotes

Have fun with your anti-capitalist, altruist acquaintances by asking them to identify the author of the following quotes. Very, very few people will correctly identify the author as Adolf Hitler. (All three quotes come from MEIN KAMPF.)

"...our nation can achieve permanent health from within only on the principle: the common interest before self-interest."

"This state of mind... is really the first premise for every truly human culture ... the individual's capacity to make sacrifices for the community, for his fellow men."

"...ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

(Yes -- JFK or his speechwriter correctly gambled that most Americans would not recognize whom the President was quoting, and would therefore not recognize it as a quote.)

Post 1

Thursday, December 24, 2009 - 12:45pm

Quiet, you'll frighten Bennett Cerf...
(Edited by Joe Maurone on 12/24, 1:02pm)

Post 2

Thursday, December 24, 2009 - 12:54pm

You've got to be kidding me - "ask not" - Hitler??

Please, a source, quick!!

jt

Post 3

Thursday, December 24, 2009 - 4:26pm

Jay, as Kate noted:

(All three quotes come from MEIN KAMPF.)

I Snoped it, and came up with nothing.

Post 4

Thursday, December 24, 2009 - 6:19pm

http://godlessmomathome.blogspot.com/2009/02/was-hitler-atheist.html
two-thirds down -------

Here is another quote from Mein Kampf:

"It is necessary that the individual should finally come to realize that his own ego is of no importance in comparison with the existence of his nation... that above all the unity of a nation's spirit & will are worth far more than the freedom & will of an individual...
from this site - two thirds down ------- http://godlessmomathome.blogspot.com/2009/02/was-hitler-atheist.html

"This state of mind... is really the first premise for every truly human culture .. we only understand the individual's capacity to make sacrifices for the community, for his fellow men."

Does that sound familiar?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How about this:
"...ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

Or these:
" What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose, our sense of higher purpose [that being one's fellow men and nation] . And that's what we have to restore. "

"I think when you spread the wealth around it's good for everybody." [Which means you must give up what is your's for the sake of others.]

Post 5

Thursday, December 24, 2009 - 6:54pm

Hitler didn't write in English. Quote me the original German.

Post 6

Thursday, December 24, 2009 - 7:46pm

I'll go dig it up ASAP -- I remember coming across it (in German) a while back, but Google.de isn't turning it up.

Post 7

Friday, December 25, 2009 - 10:52am

... but Google.de isn't turning it up.

That is not surprising, considering how politically-compromised Google is. The damn, commie, pinkoes.

Ed

Post 8

Saturday, December 26, 2009 - 10:54am

The German wouldn't do me any good, but, following #2, I'd like to see some sourcing.

Post 9

Saturday, December 26, 2009 - 1:55pm

The text of Mein Kampf is available in English and German in searchable pdf form. It should not be too difficult to provide a reference or the original German � assuming such actually exists.

Post 10

Monday, January 4, 2010 - 9:40am

Any luck on a source here?

Post 11

Monday, January 4, 2010 - 11:56am

I haven't found it -- yet. I did once own a German MEIN KAMPF with the passage marked, but so far I've yet to (re-)locate that; it may have "disappeared" when I moved here a couple of years ago.

Post 12

Monday, January 4, 2010 - 9:18pm

Can you not remember the German quote well enough to search for it in a pdf or plain text file of Mein Jihad?

Post 13

Sunday, January 17, 2010 - 8:47am

I finally replaced my copy of THE AYN RAND COLUMN, containing "The Fascist New Frontier." In it, Rand places a Hitler quote before Kennedy's. I don't know if it's the one Kate is thinking of, but Rand certainly saw the similarity between the two quotes. The Hitler quote:

"If we then understand national solidarity aright, we cannot but see that it is based on the idea of sacrifice. In other words, if somebody or other objects that the continual giving involves too heavy a burden, then we must reply that...true national solidarity cannot find its sense in mere taking." Sept. 30, 1934.

Post 14

Sunday, January 17, 2010 - 10:55am

No, Kate didn't say the one vaguely resembled the other. She said:

Very, very few people will correctly identify the author as Adolf Hitler. (All three quotes come from MEIN KAMPF.)

. . .

"...ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

(Yes -- JFK or his speechwriter correctly gambled that most Americans would not recognize whom the President was quoting, and would therefore not recognize it as a quote.)

It is for this reason that I demanded elsewhere that she identify the source of her idea that a certain author maintained a do-not-read-list.

Post 15

Sunday, January 17, 2010 - 11:09am

Kate, is it true that you meant the quote was word-for-word, or did you mean to suggest that it could be paraphrased? Thanks.

(As paraphrased, the meaning is quite similar and clear.)

Post 16

Sunday, January 17, 2010 - 11:35am

Joe, are you actually asking Kate if what she really meant to say, rather than what she did say � "all three quotes [including "...ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."] come from MEIN KAMPF" � was merely that Hitler and JFK each occasionally expressed altruistic statist slogans?

That sounds like Sandy Berger explaining how he "meant" to put those secret documents in his briefcase, rather than his underpants.

Wouldn't it be more honest and less violent to the sense of reality to all concerned to ask if she didn't perhaps exaggerate, maybe based on an incorrect memory? There is no way someone uses the words "all three quotes," produces three 'quotes,' and puts them in quotation marks, and refers to JFK or his speechwriter quuoting him in a thread called "Hitler quotes" without having meant to do so.

Post 17

Sunday, January 17, 2010 - 11:46am

Ted, is your name Kate? No? Then have a donut and let Kate answer.
(
(Edited by Joe Maurone on 1/17, 11:49am)

Post 18

Sunday, January 17, 2010 - 12:04pm

Joe, are you retained as Kate's lawyer? My pro bono advice is better than yours. If you really wanna volunteer, there's always Haiti.

Post 19

Sunday, January 17, 2010 - 12:10pm