“To imitate the ostrich in political matters has never been a satisfactory method of avoiding danger; yet this is what Hitler, as well as his more important political, economic and even military advisers, chose to do over and over again.”

—  Heinz Guderian

On the failure of Hitler and his advisors to face realities of various situations, especially those of the military on the Eastern Front, in Panzer Leader (1952), Ch. 6 : The Campaign in Russia, p. 190
Context: To imitate the ostrich in political matters has never been a satisfactory method of avoiding danger; yet this is what Hitler, as well as his more important political, economic and even military advisers, chose to do over and over again. The consequences of this deliberate blindness in the face of hard facts were devastating; and it was we who now had to bear them.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "To imitate the ostrich in political matters has never been a satisfactory method of avoiding danger; yet this is what H…" by Heinz Guderian?
Heinz Guderian photo
Heinz Guderian 15
German general 1888–1954

Related quotes

Woody Allen photo

“Political questions, if you go back thousands of years, are ephemeral, not important. History is the same thing over and over again.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Interview in Der Spiegel, 2005-06-20 (as quoted by the New York Post) http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2005-06-29/
Context: As a filmmaker, I'm not interested in 9/11 [... ] it's too small, history overwhelms it. The history of the world is like: He kills me, I kill him, only with different cosmetics and different castings. So in 2001, some fanatics killed some Americans, and now some Americans are killing some Iraqis. And in my childhood, some Nazis killed Jews. And now, some Jewish people and some Palestinians are killing each other. Political questions, if you go back thousands of years, are ephemeral, not important. History is the same thing over and over again.

Martin Bormann photo

“The sicker that Hitler grew and the worse the military situation became, the fewer were the number of people who could reach the dictator. Everything had to be done through this sinister guttersnipe, Bormann, and thus his methods became increasingly successful. I had repeated angry altercations with him, because over and over again he would sabotage the taking of necessary military measures for the sake of the obscure political game that he was playing. He would also attempt to interfere in matters that purely concerned the Army, always with unfortunate results. Bormann was the éminence grise of the Third Reich.”

Martin Bormann (1900–1945) Nazi leader and private secretary to Adolf Hitler

Heinz Guderian, Panzer Leader (1990), p. 449

“Muslim spokesmen, no matter what political platform they use, have levelled the same sort of accusations… It is the Pirpur Report of the Muslim League, all over again.”

Sita Ram Goel (1921–2003) Indian activist

Muslim Separatism – Causes and Consequences (1987)

Jacques Ellul photo

“All national rulers, no matter what the nation or the political regime, lord it over their subjects. There can be no political power without tyranny.”

Jacques Ellul book Anarchy and Christianity

Source: Anarchy and Christianity (1988), p. 61

C. Wright Mills photo

“In the United States… a handful of corporations centralize decisions and responsibilities that are relevant for military and political as well as economic developments of global significance. For nowadays the military and the political cannot be separated from economic considerations of power. We now live not in an economic order or a political order, but in a political economy that is closely linked with military institutions and decisions. This is obvious in the repeated "oil crisis" in the Middle East, or in the relevance of Southeast Asia and African resources for the Western powers…”

C. Wright Mills (1916–1962) American sociologist

Character & Social Structure (1954).
1950s

Vilhelm Ekelund photo

“Sometimes it is hard to avoid a certain feeling of sadness: when realizing that everything sensible has already, many times over, been excellently expressed—and expressed in vain. And note how well-hidden, pushed into obscurity, drowned by triviality's overwhelming mass—therefore, how important it is that the sensible be repeated again and again, experienced in new individuals over and over with new variations, with a new emphasis, in a new voice—continuously kept alive.”

Vilhelm Ekelund (1880–1949) Swedish poet

Source: The Second Light (1986), p. 71

Ian Bremmer photo

“India and China offer intriguing mirror images. Modern India has long been open politically and, until recently, closed economically. Modern China has opened economically, but remains politically closed. The comparison reveals that, while politics and economics can never fully be separated, political openness is a better guarantor of long-term stability than economic openness.”

Ian Bremmer (1969) American political scientist

The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall (2006).

“There is never any real danger in allowing a pedestal for a hero. He never has time to sit on it. One sees him always over and over again kicking his pedestal out from under him, and using it to batter a world with.”

Gerald Stanley Lee (1862–1944) Americna minister

Book V, Part III, Chapter XVI.
Crowds (1913)

Stephen Colbert photo

“Language has always been important in politics, but language is incredibly important to the present political struggle.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

New York Magazine interview http://nymag.com/news/politics/22322/ (16 October 2006)
Context: Language has always been important in politics, but language is incredibly important to the present political struggle. Because if you can establish an atmosphere in which information doesn't mean anything, then there is no objective reality. The first show we did, a year ago, was our thesis statement: What you wish to be true is all that matters, regardless of the facts. Of course, at the time, we thought we were being farcical.

Margaret Thatcher photo

“It is always important in matters of high politics to know what you do not know. Those who think they know, but are mistaken, and act upon their mistakes, are the most dangerous people to have in charge.”

Margaret Thatcher book Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World

Source: Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, p. 104

Related topics