David I. Kertzer Quotes & Sayings

A tyrant remains a tyrant no matter how benevolently he may philosophize and smile, — David I. Kertzer

I never want to see umbrellas around me," he [Mussolini] once said. "The umbrella is a bourgeois relic, it is the arm used by the pope's soldiers. A people who carry umbrellas cannot found an empire. — David I. Kertzer

There is no past, memory paints it,' " the pope recited. " 'There is no future, for hope shapes it. There is only the present, but it is always escaping us. — David I. Kertzer

As a result, Italians who today bear illustrious noble names are not necessarily the progeny of nobility but may be instead the descendants of poor Jews who sought a new life by passing through the doors of the Catechumens. Of — David I. Kertzer

Ritual may be vital to reaction, but it is also the life blood of revolution. — David I. Kertzer

Relations between the Facist regime and the American government were rapidly cooling. Italian newspapers did nothing to help, charging that Jews ruled the United States. They offered a list of the all-Jewish makeup of what was said to be the likely next American cabinet, headed by the President Bernard Baruch and Vice President Albert Einstein. Leon Trotsky was slated to be secretary of war; the face that he was neither American nor lived in the country was apparently no impediment. — David I. Kertzer