20 Smart Quotes from Some of History’s Biggest Monsters

Ironically, hearing someone reference this quote from Andrew Tate was the inspiration for this column:

You don’t want a Ferrari to drive fast. You want a Ferrari because other men want a Ferrari and can’t have one. It’s hyper-competitive.

My first thought after hearing that was, “That’s insightful,” followed by, “Ugh, Andrew Tate is a horrible human being,” and then, “Oh wow, I wonder how many other horrible people said brilliant things?”

As it turns out, quite a lot. No one quoted below is a good person, but even the bad guys sometimes have smart things to say, although you may not be surprised to find that many of these quotes are tinged with a bit of darkness.

1) “It takes less courage to criticize the decisions of others than to stand by your own.” -- Atilla the Hun

2) “You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.” -- Al Capone

3) “No one gives it to you. You have to take it.” -- Frank Costello

4) “You pretty quickly run out of really effective ways to make yourself happier by spending money.” -- Sam Bankman-Fried

5) “The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.” -- Joseph Goebbels

6) “Would you rather have butter or guns? Preparedness makes us powerful. Butter merely makes us fat.” -- Hermann Goering

7) “I would rather die standing up to live life on my knees.” -- Che Guevara

8) “I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few.” -- Adolf Hitler

9) “I hate luxury. I exercise moderation… It will be easy to forget your vision and purpose once you have fine clothes, fast horses, and beautiful women. [In which case], you will be no better than a slave, and you will surely lose everything.” -- Genghis Khan

10) “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.” -- Osama Bin Laden

11) “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” -- Vladimir Lenin

12) “The real strong have no need to prove it to the phonies.” -- Charles Manson

13) “Make criticism in good time; don’t get into the habit of criticizing only after the event.” -- Mao Zedong

14) “Surround yourself with people who make you happy. People who make you laugh, who help you when you’re in need. People who genuinely care. They are the ones worth keeping in your life. Everyone else is just passing through.” -- Karl Marx

15) “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” -- Benito Mussolini

16) “Hidden talent counts for nothing.” -- Emperor Nero

17) “Don’t try and get people to like you, but try to make sure they don’t dislike you.” -- Jimmy Savile

18) “The day you take complete responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making any excuses, that’s the day you start to the top.” -- O. J. Simpson

19) “The only real power comes out of a long rifle.” -- Joseph Stalin

20) “He who slanders the victim aids the executioner.” -- Leon Trotsky

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