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Five hundred years from now, it won't be Hitler we remember. Hitler may have set the century's agenda; he was a sort of vortex of negative energy that sucked everything else in. But I think God takes fallible human beings like Roosevelt or Churchill and carves them for his purposes. In five centuries, we'll look back and say the story of the century was not Hitler or Stalin; it was the survival of the human spirit in the face of genocide.

Adolf Hitler#203

HistoryLeadershipLegacyHumanityMemory

About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker suggests history will remember human spirit over leaders, even if Hitler set the agenda.
In plain terms
Future generations will care more about human survival than about me or other leaders.
What can you take from it?
Historical memory focuses on human endurance rather than individual leaders.

Where it applies

  • historical reflection
  • future view
  • legacy assessment

Putting it to work

  • assessing impact
  • focusing on people
  • understanding history

Questions to consider

  • Who shapes history?
  • What matters most in legacy?

Another view

This claim about human spirit survival overlooks the lasting harm caused by the leaders mentioned.

More from Adolf Hitler

  1. Was there no resistance to his disastrous projects? There was. But it was too feeble, too weak and too late to succeed.... The fact is that Hitler was beloved …

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  2. If all Hitler had done was kill people in vast numbers more efficiently than anyone else ever did, the debate over his lasting importance might end there. But …

    Permalink to quote #204
  3. Though Hitler was indeed racist and anti-Semitic to the core, a man who without compunction could commit murder and genocide, he was also an individual of grea…

    Permalink to quote #201

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