“The real question is: who has the responsibility to uphold human rights? The answer to that is: everyone.”

Historian Robert Paxton begins one of his books by asserting: Fascism was the major political innovation of the twentieth century, and the source of much of its pain.

I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life.

The answer matters because, although nature abhors a vacuum, Fascism welcomes one.

Fascism did not die with Mussolini, he warned. Hitler is finished, but the seeds spread by his disordered mind have firm root in too many fanatical brains.

A Fascist who launches his career by being voted into office will have a claim to legitimacy that others do not.

It is easier to remove tyrants and destroy concentration camps than to kill the ideas that gave them birth.

Go for it, never back down, and don’t give in, because there’s no greater satisfaction in life than using your gifts to help others and to contribute to your community and country.

The temptation is powerful to close our eyes and wait for the worst to pass, but history tells us that for freedom to survive, it must be defended and that if lies are to stop, they must be exposed.

The complexity of immigration as an issue begins with a basic human trait: we are reluctant to share.

Painful the grounds for resentment, the easier it is for a Fascist leader to gain followers by dangling the prospect of renewal or by vowing to take back what has been stolen.

For the DPRK and its military, the ouster of Saddam Hussein conveyed a powerful message: it’s not enough to pretend to have weapons of mass destruction. To be secure, a nation must build them, own them, and hide them.

Among those welcoming Fascism and shouting Viva Mussolini that day were two hundred Jews.

There are a lot of similar aspects in all the religions. The question is which side of it you hold up.

To put it mildly, the world is a mess.

I have said this many times, that there seems to be enough room in the world for mediocre men, but not for mediocre women, and we really have to work very, very hard.

I am not a fatalist. I have just been reading War and Peace and Tolstoy is such a fatalist. I think people can make a difference, I am an optimist who worries a lot.