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Adolf Eichmann

Otto Adolf Eichmann (19 March 1906 – 1 June 1962) was a high-ranking Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel). Due to his organizational talents and ideological reliability, he was tasked by Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich to facilitate and manage the logistics of mass deportation to ghettos and extermination camps in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe and worked under Ernst Kaltenbrunner until the end of the war. He was captured by Israeli Mossad agents in Argentina and indicted by Israeli court on fifteen criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was convicted and hanged.

Quotes

 * To sum it all up, I must say that I regret nothing.
 * While awaiting trial in Israel, as quoted in LIFE magazine (5 December 1960).

 * I was only carrying out the orders of the Zionists. They asked me to gather the Jews in a specific place in the world, using expulsion or murder. First, their target was Poland, then Madagascar, but in the end they chose the Middle East. If I am guilty of the so- called killing of 6 million Jews then the Zionist leaders are much guiltier than I am. This is because they wanted to silence the world under the pretext that if they had stayed in Germany they would have been killed. Because they don’t have a country they are forced to occupy other people’s land. And that is what they did.
 * Eichmann Trial on December 17, 1961 as cited in From Empathy to Denial: Arab Response to the Holocaust (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009).

 * Over the years I learned which hooks to use to catch which fish.
 * Audiotape recording of Eichmann in Argentina (1957), as quoted in Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer by Bettina Stangneth (2015). ISBN 978-0307950161.

 * Regret is something for little children.
 * During cross-examination at his trial, session 96, July 13, 1961, as quoted in Eichmann Before Jerusalem by Bettina Stangneth (2015).

 * It was actually an achievement that was never matched before or since.
 * About the deportation of more than 400,000 Jews from Hungary in several weeks as quoted in Eichmann Before Jerusalem by Bettina Stangneth (1815).

 * Adolf Hitler may have been wrong all down the line, but one thing is beyond dispute: the man was able to work his way up from lance corporal in the German Army to Führer of a people of almost 80 million. … His success alone proved that I should subordinate myself to this man.
 * As quoted in "The Eichmann Memoir" in The Personalist Volume XLII (1962).

 * My political sentiments inclined toward the left and emphasized the socialist aspects every bit as much as the nationalist ones.
 * Eichmann's memoir False Gods, quoted in Gotz Aly, Hitler's Beneficiaries. How the Nazis Bought the German People (London: Verso, 2007), pp. 16-17.

 * Our opinion at the time was that National Socialism and the Communism of the Soviet Republic were sort of 'siblings.’ And it may also be that this attitude was peculiar especially to an Austrian SS member. For his enemies at that time were not Social Democracy and Communism; these were combated by the Austrian aristocracy as much as he himself was;…
 * False Gods: The Jerusalem Memoirs, London: UK, Black House Publishing (2015) p. 75

 * Whether they were bank directors or mental cases, the people who were loaded on those trains meant nothing to me. It was really none of my business.
 * As quoted in Religion and Public Education (1967) by Nicholas Wolterstorf.

 * I was never an anti-Semite. … My sensitive nature revolted at the sight of corpses and blood... I personally had nothing to do with this. My job was to observe and report on it.
 * As quoted in Consensus and Controversy: Defending Pope Pius XII (2002) by Sister Margherita Marchione, p. 71.

 * Long live Germany. Long live Argentina. Long live Austria. These are the three countries with which I have been most connected and which I will not forget. I greet my wife, my family and my friends. I am ready. We'll meet again soon, as is the fate of all men. I die believing in God.
 * Before his execution in Jerusalem (1 June 1962), as quoted in Becoming Eichmann: Rethinking the Life, Crimes, and Trial of a "Desk Murderer" by David Cesarani (2006), p. 321. ISBN 978-0-306-81539-3.

 * I hope that all of you will follow me.
 * Mumbled just before being hanged, according to Rafi Eitan, an Israeli intelligence officer who was standing behind Eichmann during the execution, as quoted in Mitch Ginsburg, "Eichmann's Final Barb" in The Times of Israel, December 2, 2014.

 * Hätten wir 10,3 Millionen Juden getötet, dann wäre ich befriedigt und würde sagen, gut, wir haben einen Feind vernichtet. … Ich war kein normaler Befehlsempfänger, dann wäre ich ein Trottel gewesen, sondern ich habe mitgedacht, ich war ein Idealist gewesen.
 * If we had killed 10.3 million Jews, then I would have been satisfied and would say, good, we annihilated an enemy. … I wasn't only issued orders, in this case I'd have been a moron, but I rather anticipated, I was an idealist.
 * Post-war discussion with Willem Sassen in Eichmanns Memoiren. Ein kritischer Essay (Zuerst 2001) Frankfurt/M.: Fischer TB, 2004 ISBN 3-5961-5726-9

 * During cross-examination, prosecutor Hausner asked Eichmann if he considered himself guilty of the murder of millions of Jews. Eichmann replied: "Legally not, but in the human sense … yes, for I am guilty of having deported them". When Hausner produced as evidence a quote by Eichmann in 1945 stating: "I will leap into my grave laughing because the feeling that I have five million human beings on my conscience is for me a source of extraordinary satisfaction", Eichmann countered the claim saying that he was referring only to "enemies of the Reich".
 * Knappmann, Edward W. (1997). "The Adolf Eichmann Trial, 1961". Great World Trials. Detroit: Gale Research, pp. 332-337.

 * I have them completely in hand here, they dare not take a step without first consulting me.
 * Letter to Herbert Hagen about the Jewish community in Vienna (1938), as quoted in Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer by Bettina Stangneth (2015).

 * It was my job to catch our Jewish enemies like fish in a net and transport them to their final destination.
 * As quoted in The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb (2013). ISBN 978-0-545-56239-3.

 * My heart was light and joyful in my work, because the decisions were not mine.
 * At his trial, as quoted by Alan Rosenthal, "Eichmann, Revisited" in The Jerusalem Post (20 April 2011).

 * I knew that in this 'promised land' of South America I had a few good friends, to whom I could say openly, freely and proudly that I am Adolf Eichmann, former SS Obersturmbannführer.
 * Meine Flucht, a memoir written by Eichmann in 1961, as quoted in Eichmann Before Jerusalem by Bettina Stangneth (2015).

 * In Hungary in 1944, Eichmann introduced himself this way: "Do you know who I am? I am a bloodhound!"
 * Eichmann Before Jerusalem by Bettina Stangneth (2015).

 * After the [Wannsee] conference, Heydrich, Müller and myself sat cozily around the fireplace. We had drinks. We had brandy. We sang songs. After a while, we got up on chairs and drank a toast. Then we got up on the tables and went round and round. On the chairs. On the tables. Then we sat around peacefully, giving ourselves a rest after so many exhausting hours.
 * As quoted by Alan Rosenthal, "Eichmann, Revisited" in The Jerusalem Post (20 April 2011).

 * Eichmann boasted about anything that seemed at all plausible to him: his genuinely close ties to the highest powers in Hungary; his somewhat indirect contact with the powers of the Third Reich; his access to everything from a "personal aircraft" to direct control of the gas chambers at Auschwitz. ... He threatened his victims with the prospect that after the "final victory," Hitler would make him "World Commissar of the Jews."
 * Eichmann Before Jerusalem by Bettina Stangneth (2015).

 * After the speech he looked at us ironically and added softly: "Otherwise you would die". The words were icy but the tone like velvet, almost friendly.
 * Benjamin Murmelstein, Theresienstadt: Eichmanns Vorzeige-Ghetto, ISBN 978-3707605105, as quoted in Eichmann's Jews: The Jewish Administration of Holocaust Vienna, 1938-1945 by Doron Rabinovici (2014), ISBN 978-0745646824.

 * The language becomes entirely perverted where Eichmann turns metaphors on their heads, talking about expulsion and murder using gentle images of life. An institution for forced emigration was his "first child," where he was able to "be creative in my work." All the individual acts of robbery and expulsion that took place in Austria were committed to "provide [the country] with injections of Jewish solutions." Even exterminations and deportations were "born". This was why he felt so superfluous in Budapest, when he was forced to stop deporting people to Auschwitz: "As far as I know, I couldn't have done anything fruitful anymore" ... In Eichmann's language, he didn't send people to the death camps; the camps were "fed with material".
 * Eichmann Before Jerusalem by Bettina Stangneth (2015).

 * Eichmann ... found all bureaucracy by definition tiresome. This was what staff were for. "These matters to do with bureaucracy," he explained to Sassen [in Argentina], "I just relied on my civil servants for them". He deployed these "living articles," like Ernst Moes and Fritz Wöhrn, as "bureaucratic brakes."
 * Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem (2015).

 * Brand was then conveyed to Eichmann's office in the Hotel Majestic and ushered into his presence. Eichmann, resplendent in his SS uniform, stood in front of his desk and started barking at him: 'You ... do you know who I am? I am in charge of the Aktion! In Europe, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria it has been completed, now it is Hungary's turn.'
 * David Cesarani, Becoming Eichmann: Rethinking the Life, Crimes, and Trial of a "Desk Murderer" (2006), p. 175. ISBN 978-0-306-81539-3.

 * I loved playing an open hand against all the Jewish political functionaries ... For me, 'open hand' is a winged word.
 * As quoted in Eichmann Before Jerusalem by Bettina Stangneth (2015).

 * I will simply not do penance.
 * A text handwritten by Eichmann in 1956, as quoted in Eichmann Before Jerusalem by Bettina Stangneth (2015).

Argentina Audiotapes (1957)

 * Quotes from audiotape recordings of Eichmann speaking to Nazi friends in Argentina in 1957, transcribed by Bettina Stangneth and translated by Ruth Martin, published in Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer by Bettina Stangneth (2015), ISBN 978-0307950161. The original tapes are stored in the State Archives of Germany.

 * As my chief, Gruppenführer Müller expressed it, they were sending in the master himself, so I wanted to behave like a master.

 * I have to forge my weapons according to the strength of the resistance.

 * While we were working with the Jews to solve the Jewish question, the others used the Jews as a means to an end, to milk them for their own ends.... And this is why there are still a whole lot of Jews enjoying life today who ought to have been gassed.

 * They knew me wherever I went. Through the press, the name Eichmann had emerged as a symbol.... In any case, the word Jew ... was irreversibly linked with the word Eichmann. Much more power ... was attributed to me than I actually had.

 * The men in my command had the kind of respect for me that prompted the Jews to effectively set me on a throne.

 * It wasn't in our interests for the material to be used for labor in the concentration camps to arrive completely useless and needing repair.... Look, how can you make 25,000 Jews, or people, or let's say 25,000 cows, how can you simply let 25,000 animals just disappear en route? Have you ever seen 25,000 people in a pile? ... Have you ever seen 10,000 people in a pile? That's five transport trains, and if you pack them in the way the Hungarian police planned, then at best you'll get no more than 3,000 people in one transport train. Loading a train is a tricky business anyway, whether it's with cattle or flour sacks ... and so much more difficult to load it with people, especially when you have problems to reckon with.

 * The only good enemy of the Reich is a dead one. In particular I have to add, when I received an order, I always carried out this order with the executioner, and I am proud of that to this day.... If I had not done this, they would not have gone to the butcher.

 * I was here, there and everywhere, you never knew when I was going to show up. I was a traveler.... I was able to creep into every territory of our corner of Europe.

 * Müller said to me once, if we'd had fifty Eichmanns, we'd have won the war for sure. And I was proud. That should have given you an insight into my interior - since you don't know me, not from within, and that is important.

 * Nobody else was such a household name in Jewish political life at home and abroad in Europe as little old me.

 * As I sometimes said to the important Jews, when I had them, something like: 'Well then, do you know where you are? You're with the Czar of the Jews. Don't you know that, didn't you see the Pariser Tageblatt?!'

 * Every department was trying to squeeze everything possible out of the Jews, to winkle it out by threatening them with the big bad Eichmann.

 * These Jew-treks, as I called them, were carried out in the most elegant way.... I can tell you today that I saw two bodies on the whole route, they were old Jews - it's clear, you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. And were no eggs broken when much larger contingents of Germans marched from the East after 1945?

 * I am one of those people who can't stand to see corpses.... But there is one good thing nature gave me. I can switch off and forget very quickly, without trying to.... I still have a very devout saying from my youth, and I always do it when I find something horribly unpleasant and I can't stop thinking about it. And in order to forcibly distract myself, do you know what I say? You'll laugh! "I believe in God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, died under Pontius Pilate, suffered" and so on and so on, "was raised from the dead," and so on. I somehow realized early on, as a child - still a devout believer at that time, of course - that once I'd said that, I didn't think about anything else.

 * I, "the cautious bureaucrat," that was me, yes indeed. But ... This cautious bureaucrat was attended by a ... a fanatical warrior, fighting for the freedom of my blood, which is my birthright, and I say here, just as I have said to you before: your louse that nips you, Comrade Sassen, does not interest me. My louse under my collar interests me. I will squash it. This is the same when it comes to my people.... what benefits my people is a sacred order and a sacred law for me.... I have no regrets! I am certainly not going to bow down to that cross! ... it would be too easy ... for me to pretend that a Saul has become a Paul. I tell you, Comrade Sassen, I cannot do that. That I cannot do, because I am not willing to do it, because I balk inwardly at saying that we did anything wrong.

 * Before my people bite the dust, the whole world should bite the dust, and then my people. But only then!

 * We would have fulfilled our duty to our blood and our people and to the freedom of the peoples, if we had exterminated the most cunning intellect of all the human intellects alive today. For that is what I said to Streicher, what I have always preached: we are fighting an enemy who, through many many thousands of years of schooling, is intellectually superior to us. Was it yesterday or the day before, or a year ago, I don't know, I heard or read: even before the Romans had their state, before Rome had even been founded, the Jews there were able to write. This is an understatement. They should have said, aeons before the Romans erected their state, aeons before the very founding of Rome itself, they were able to write. Look at the tablets of the Ten Commandments. Look at a race that today has recourse to, may I just say, six thousand years of written history, a race that has been making laws for let us say five thousand years or six thousand years - and I am not wrong, I believe, when I estimate a seventh millennium. The fact that the Christian church today makes use of this lawmaking is very depressing for me. But it tells me that this must be a race of the first order of magnitude, since lawmakers have always been great. And because of these realizations I fought against this enemy.

 * Now through the vagaries of fortune, most of these 10.3 million Jews remained alive, so I say to myself: fate wished it so. I have to subordinate myself to fate and destiny. I am just a little man and don't have to fight against this, and I couldn't, and I don't want to.

 * It is hard, what I have told you, I know, and I will be condemned for being so hard in my phrasing, but I cannot tell you anything else, for it is the truth! Why should I deny it?

 * On the Lüneberg Heath, it was near where Bergen-Belsen had been, and everything round there smelled of garlic and it was all Jews, because who was buying anything at that time? Only the Jews, and then I said to myself, I, I who was bargaining with Jews over wood and eggs, I was amazed and astounded, and I thought you see - goddammit! They all should have been killed, and there those fellas are, doing deals with me, you know?

 * He [Rudolf] Kastner could be characterised as a callous intellectual only insofar as he would thoughtlessly sacrifice thousands or hundreds of thousands of his blood in order to achieve his political goal, and his political goal was EREZ ISRAEL! For that he needed valuable human material, and for that he bargained hard with me. They were to a certain degree Jewish SA or SS men for Israel who moved into Palestine illegally, thus against the will of the High Commissioner, through Romania, and developed the resistance organisation of the Haganah and other associations that finally contributed their part to creating Israel. So Kastner is, on the one hand, a betrayer of his own blood; for he said to me – let it be repeated here once again: “Old Jews and those in favour of assimilation do not interest me; their fate I find regretful – but one cannot do anything about it.” On the other hand, as a warrior he was again right in the establishment of EREZ ISRAEL, for only the establishment of the state of Israel could indeed guarantee a real protection of their blood, a real defence against periodically erupting, provoked or unprovoked, anti-Jewish actions throughout the world. This goal demanded sacrifice like any great aim that was to guarantee security throughout the future.
 * Adolf Eichmann, The Eichmann Tapes: My Role in the Final Solution (2015)

Eichmann Interrogated (1983)

 * Eichmann Interrogated: Transcripts from the Archives of the Israeli Police (1983) edited by Jochen von Lang and Claus Sibyll, translated by Ralph Manheim

 * The war with the Soviet Union began in June 1941, I think. And I believe it was two months later, or maybe three, that Heydrich sent for me. I reported. He said to me: "The Führer has ordered physical extermination." These were his words. And as though wanting to test their effect on me, he made a long pause, which was not at all his way. I can still remember that. In the first moment, I didn't grasp the implications, because he chose his words so carefully. But then I understood. I didn't say anything, what could I say? Because I'd never thought of a … of such a thing, of that sort of violent solution. … Anyway, Heydrich said: "Go and see Globocnik, the Führer has already given him instructions. Take a look and see how he's getting on with his program. I believe he's using Russian anti-tank trenches for exterminating the Jews." As ordered, I went to Lublin, located the headquarters of SS and Police Commander Globocnik, and reported to the Gruppenführer. I told him Heydrich had sent me, because the Führer had ordered the physical extermination of the Jews. … Globocnik sent for a certain Sturmbannführer Höfle, who must have been a member of his staff. We went from Lublin to, I don't remember what the place was called, I get them mixed up, I couldn't say if it was Treblinka or some other place. There were patches of woods, sort of, and the road passed through — a Polish highway. On the right side of the road there was an ordinary house, that's where the men who worked there lived. A captain of the Ordnungspolizei welcomed us. A few workmen were still there. The captain, which surprised me, had taken off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves, somehow he seemed to have joined in the work. They were building little wooden shacks, two, maybe three of them; they looked like two- or three-room cottages. Höfle told the police captain to explain the installation to me. And then he started in. He had a, well, let's say, a vulgar, uncultivated voice. Maybe he drank. He spoke some dialect from the southwestern corner of Germany, and he told me how he had made everything airtight. It seems they were going to hook up a Russian submarine engine and pipe the exhaust into the houses and the Jews inside would be poisoned. I was horrified. My nerves aren't strong enough … I can't listen to such things... such things, without their affecting me. Even today, if I see someone with a deep cut, I have to look away. I could never have been a doctor. I still remember how I visualized the scene and began to tremble, as if I'd been through something, some terrible experience. The kind of thing that happens sometimes and afterwards you start to shake. Then I went to Berlin and reported to the head of the Security Police.
 * p. 75 - 76.

 * I'd like to say something about this last, about this last point of this terrible, terrible business. I mean Treblinka. I was given orders. I went to see Globocnik in Treblinka. That was the second time. The installations were now in operation, and I had to report to Müller. I expected to see a wooden house on the right side of the road and a few more wooden houses on the left; that's what I remembered. Instead, again with the same Sturmbannführer Höfle, I came to a railroad station with a sign saying Treblinka, looking exactly like a German railroad station — anywhere in Germany — a replica, with signboards, etc. There I hung back as far as I could. I didn't push closer to see it all. I saw a footbridge enclosed in barbed wire and over that footbridge a file of naked Jews was being driven into a house, a big... no, not a house, a big, one-room structure, to be gassed. As I was told, they were gassed with ...what's it called? … Potassium cyanide... or cyanic acid. In acid form it's called cyanic acid. I didn't look to see what happened. I reported to Müller and as usual he listened in silence, without a word of comment. Just his facial expression said: "There's nothing I can do about it." I am convinced, Herr Hauptmann, [Eichmann is referring to his interrogator, Avner Less] I know it sounds odd coming from me, but I'm convinced that if it had been up to Müller it wouldn't have happened.
 * p. 84.

Die Welt memoirs (1999)

 * Quotes from Eichmann notes for a memoir to be titled The False Gods published in Die Welt (12 August 1999) as translated in "Why? New Eichmann Notes Try to Explain" by Roger Cohen in The New York Times (13 August 1999)

 * Obeying an order was the most important thing to me. It could be that is in the nature of the German.

 * From my childhood, obedience was something I could not get out of my system. When I entered the armed services at the age of 27, I found being obedient not a bit more difficult than it had been during my life to that point. It was unthinkable that I would not follow orders.

 * Now that I look back, I realize that a life predicated on being obedient and taking orders is a very comfortable life indeed. Living in such a way reduces to a minimum one's own need to think.

 * I was sent to Treblinka, Minsk, Lemberg and Auschwitz. When I see the images before my eyes, it all comes back to me … Corpses, corpses, corpses. Shot, gassed, decaying corpses. They seemed to pop out of the ground when a grave was opened. It was a delirium of blood. It was an inferno, a hell, and I felt I was going insane.

 * I am certain, however, that those responsible for the murder of millions of Germans will never be brought to justice.

CBC report (2000)

 * Quotes from "Eichmann memoirs describe Nazi death machine" (11 November 2000)

 * I witnessed the gruesome workings of the machinery of death; gear meshed with gear, like clockwork. It was the biggest and most enormous dance of death of all times.

 * When I arrived at the place of the execution, the gunmen fired into a pit the size of several rooms. They fired from small submachine guns. As I arrived, I saw a Jewish woman and a small child in her arms in the pit. I wanted to pull out the child, but then a bullet smashed the skull of the child. My driver wiped brain particles from my leather coat.

 * Because I have seen hell, death and the devil, because I had to watch the madness of destruction, because I was one of the many horses pulling the wagon and couldn't escape left or right because of the will of the driver, I now feel called upon and have the desire to tell what happened.

Quotes about Eichmann

 * The fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil.
 * Hannah Arendt in Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963), ch. 15.

 * Journalist: [...] in Italy a scandal was caused by the dossier [...] Majorana and Eichmann, the secret in a photograph, in which the hypothesis that the physicist, after having joined Heisenberg in Germany, worked on the creation of the Nazi atomic bomb took shape. [...] Majorana, or rather someone who looked a lot like him, is portrayed next to Eichmann escaping to Argentina. It seems to me that you discard the Argentinian track..."}} I did not even raise this thesis because it seemed to me at least outlandish. After all, how can one support a thesis based solely on the alleged similarity of a photo taken thirteen years after Majorana's disappearance? On the other hand, there is no trace of Majorana in the German archives concerning his work on the atomic bomb - which are open to all and can be consulted -. And the Italian physicist's name did not even come up in 1945, when German scientists arrested in Germany were transferred to a secret residence in England, and conversations recorded without their knowledge for several months.
 * Étienne Klein from an interview of Francesco Forlani, Il mistero «Majorana», ilmanifesto.it (January 11, 2014)

 * Not at all the man of the "banality of evil", as Hannah Arendt claimed, but an anti-Semite of limitless cruelty, ruthless and corrupt.
 * Claude Lanzmann, The Last of the Unjust (2015), back cover. ISBN 978-2070106707.

 * To the very last [at his trial], Eichmann appeared emotionless, a human iceberg. Only once did I see him show any expression other than injured innocence. Films of the concentration camps were being screened in the courtroom. The houselights were out, but from the control booth, on a monitor, I could see the close-up of Eichmann. As the corpses of Bergen-Belsen were bulldozed into their final pit, Eichmann, on camera, smiled.
 * Alan Rosenthal, "Eichmann, Revisited" in The Jerusalem Post (20 April 2011).

 * Adolf Eichmann, the sinister figure who had charge of the extermination program, has estimated that the anti-Jewish activities resulted in the killing of 6 million Jews. Of these, 4 million were killed in extermination institutions, and 2 million were killed by Einsatzgruppen, mobile units of the Security Police and SD which pursued Jews in the ghettos and in their homes and slaughtered them by gas wagons, by mass shooting in antitank ditches, and by every device which Nazi ingenuity could conceive. So thorough and uncompromising was this program that the Jews of Europe as a race no longer exist, thus fulfilling the diabolic "prophecy" of Adolf Hitler at the beginning of the war...
 * Robert H. Jackson

 * Eichmann's skill in [public relations] exceeded anything that Goebbels's clumsy propaganda could have achieved with its rabble-rousing articles. He was even able to inveigle the "enemy press" into spreading his lies for him.
 * Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer (2015). ISBN 978-0307950161.

 * This is a sane man, and a sane man is capable of unrepentant, unlimited, planned evil. He was the genius bureaucrat, he was the powerful frozen mind which directed a gigantic organization; he is the perfect model of inhumanness; but he was not alone. Eager thousands obeyed him. Everyone could not have his special talents; many people were needed to smash a baby's head against the pavement before the mother's eyes, to urge a sick old man to rest and shoot him in the back of the head; there was endless work for willing hands. How many more like these exist everywhere?
 * Martha Gellhorn in Eichmann and the Private Conscience, Atlantic Monthly, 1962.

 * There are more documents, testimonials and eyewitness reports on Eichmann than on any other leading Nazi. Not even Hitler or Goebbels has occasioned more material. And the reason is not simply Eichmann's survival for seventeen years after the end of the war, nor the impressive efforts of the Israeli police in collecting evidence for the trial: the reason is primarily his own passion for speaking and writing... Eichmann acted out a new role for every stage of his life, for each new audience and every new aim. As subordinate, superior officer, perpetrator, fugitive, exile, and defendant, Eichmann kept a close eye on the impact he was having at all times, and he tried to make every situation work in his favor.
 * Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer (2015).

 * The Jews looked upon him [Eichmann] and Hitler as the two Adolfs who perpetrated the Holocaust.
 * Tom Segev, Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends (2010), p.12, ISBN 978-0805212082.

 * Before a subpoenaed gathering of all notable representatives of Judaism in Vienna, Eichmann flaunted his black SS uniform, his riding crop, and his knowledge of Judaism and Zionism. [Jewish historian] Adolf Böhm ... learned that Eichmann was one of his most avid readers, who knew whole pages of [his book] from memory. Böhm realized that the SS was going to use the knowledge he had painstaking gathered as ... a weapon against the Jews.
 * Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer (2015).

 * I was a hospital nurse in Berlin where we had many visits from the SS, including Adolf Eichmann. He was young, good-looking, sleek, spotless, arrogant, and a smoker. While he was in the room, we had to stand up. He thought it was great merely to harass the Jews. We didn't know at that stage that he was in charge of the entire Jewish section [of the Gestapo]. He was constantly around our necks. That was his job.
 * Gerda Schild Haas, as quoted in Our Crime Was Being Jewish: Hundreds of Holocaust Survivors Tell Their Stories by Anthony S. Pitch (2015). ISBN 978-1632206541.

 * Incognito investigation was one of the tasks that Eichmann most relished, and he remembered it fondly decades later. He visited Jewish organizations, making contacts who thought him liberal-minded and eager to learn ... [but] between coffeehouse chats, memos, lectures, and evening conferences with his colleagues, he was meticulously keeping denunciation files and writing anti-Semitic propaganda, making arrests, and carrying out joint interrogations with the Gestapo.
 * Franz Mayer, as quoted in Eichmann Before Jerusalem by Bettina Stangneth (2015).

 * Jewish survivors also described the terror that Eichmann inspired: 'And then came Eichmann, like a young god; he was very good-looking, tall, dark, radiant in those days. The pictures of him today [at his trial in 1961] bear no resemblance to how he used to be.' In Vienna, he did not convey the image as he did in the trial in Jerusalem of the subordinate and banal official described by Hannah Arendt ... Eyewitnesses in 1938-9 speak of his anti-Semitic and imperious demeanour. He refused 'for ideological reasons' to shake hands with Jewish representatives or even Zionist emissaries. He berated, threatened and taunted the Jews. While he had still been a subordinate figure in Berlin in 1937, he took the initiative in Vienna to manage the terror and the persecution. He enjoyed his new work ... people could be jailed or deported to concentration camps at his command.
 * Doron Rabinovici, Eichmann's Jews: The Jewish Administration of Holocaust Vienna, 1938-1945 (2014). ISBN 978-0745646824.

 * His behavior, too, was godlike: he was master of arresting and then releasing people, of banning institutions and then allowing them to resume. He initiated and censored a Jewish newspaper and eventually even got to decide who could access the Jewish community's bank accounts.
 * Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem (2015).

Kristallnacht 1938]] in Vienna, as quoted by Claude Lanzmann in Le dernier des injustes (2015). ISBN 978-2070106707.
 * I was arrested on the street [in Vienna], brought to the Seitenstettengasse synagogue where I saw a group that was destroying everything ... with hammers, with axes, they broke the cult objects. And the one who was directing all this, it was specifically Mr. Eichmann... He was there, he was directing the operation... It was the SS ... they were in feldgrau [army gray], not in black. It was the first time that the SS weren't in black ... [Eichmann] was there with a crowbar. He smashed the cult objects to pieces ... Eichmann personally. But later, he ... invented a story ... that he went there to protect the building and the offices.
 * Benjamin Murmelstein describing [[w:Kristallnacht|

 * We were naked when we stood in front of Adolf Eichmann and his helpers during selection on arrival at Auschwitz. Can you imagine how we felt, especially a woman, in front of them? ... He stood there with a dog and a thick leather horsewhip that was very thin at the end, which he pointed left or right. He took my mother to the other side. I cannot say I was brave. Perhaps it was inexperience, but I begged him, saying, "Please, she is the only person left in my life. I won't have anyone anymore." He struck me on the face with his whip so much that I swelled up like a balloon and could barely see through puffy eyes. He put me with my mother and that meant going to the crematorium.
 * Guta Blass Weintraub, as quoted in Our Crime Was Being Jewish: Hundreds of Holocaust Survivors Tell Their Stories by Anthony S. Pitch (2015). ISBN 978-1632206541.

 * By about the start of 1940, we knew that if a senior German functionary or an officer arrived, it was best to stay hidden, and not show your face on the street... People were saying you should have no contact with them, because there was one among them who was born in a German colony in Palestine, and spoke Yiddish and Hebrew, and was familiar with all the Jewish customs.
 * Frieda Mazia about Eichmann, as quoted in Eichmann Before Jerusalem by Bettina Stangneth (2015).

 * The story [that Eichmann was born in Palestine and spoke Hebrew] is a common thread winding through the public's perception of Eichmann ... in 1944 Eichmann used it offensively in Hungary to underpin his authority. Wisliceny used it to make the Jewish community afraid of his commander, who knew everything, could read everything, and - a masterstroke of caricature - looked so Jewish himself that he could move undetected among the Jews at any time. This terrifying scenario made such a lasting impression that after the war, people were frightened Eichmann might secretly have gone to Palestine, posing as a Jew, and could be hiding there among the survivors.
 * Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer (2015).

 * Eichmann was personally a cowardly man, who was at great pains to protect himself from responsibility… He was amoral and completely ice cold in his attitude.
 * Eichmann's deputy Dieter Wisliceny, as quoted by Alan Rosenthal, "Eichmann, Revisited" in The Jerusalem Post (20 April 2011).

 * Eichmann was in every respect a painstaking bureaucrat. He at once recorded in the files every discussion he ever had with any of his superiors. He always told me that the most important thing was to be covered at all times by one's superiors. He shunned all personal responsibility and took care to shelter behind his superiors - in this case Mueller and Kaltenbrunner - and inveigle them into accepting liability for his actions.
 * Dieter Wisliceny, quoted in "Gestapo: Instrument of Tyranny" - Page 240 - by Edward Crankshaw - History - 1956

 * It was perfectly clear to me that this order spelled the death of millions of people. I said to Eichmann, 'God grant that our enemies never have the opportunity of doing the same to the German people', in reply to which Eichmann told me not to be sentimental; it was an order of the Fuhrer's and would have to be carried out.
 * Dieter Wisliceny, quoted in "Gestapo: Instrument of Tyranny" - Page 241 - by Edward Crankshaw - History - 1956

 * He was very upset that we had published something about him in that paper ... that he was ‘der Bluthund Eichmann’ (bloodhound Eichmann) - I am using the language [he] used at that time - ‘ Der Bluthund Eichmann,’ ‘blutunterlaufene Augen’ (blood-shot eyes), ‘ein neuer Feind,’ ‘Judenfeind’ (a new enemy, an enemy of the Jews). I don’t remember all the expressions, but they were very trenchant.
 * Benno Cohn, as quoted in Eichmann Before Jerusalem by Bettina Stangneth (2015).

 * Was Eichmann ever really the "man in the shadows"? Perhaps only during the short time he spent playing the SD commissar in a long leather coat, as feared and mysterious as a film noir villain. But by 1937 ... Eichmann became a symbol for anti-Jewish policy, exactly as he had planned. The symbol was perpetuated by other people's perception and by his own behavior, but it was also how he saw himself. The only difference in the postwar period was that he was elevated even further and held up as an isolated perpetrator ... thanks to his associates and accomplices' efforts to defend themselves.
 * Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer (2015).

 * And just as you supported and carried out a policy of not wanting to share the earth with the Jewish people and the people of a number of other nations - as though you and your superiors had any right to determine who should and who should not inhabit the world - we find that no one, that is, no member of the human race, can be expected to want to share the earth with you. This is the reason, and the only reason, you must hang.
 * Hannah Arendt's "judgement" of Eichmann, in Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963).

 * With his characteristically ambiguous combination of praise, irony, and an eye for a slogan, Reinhard Heydrich called Eichmann his "little prime minister."
 * Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem (2015).

 * We knew who Eichmann was, even in Holland. We knew he was a man who used a lot of Yiddish and Hebrew expressions - and there was also a rumor he spoke Hebrew and was born in Sarona. This was very clear from the way he spoke. He was interested in our history, our background, our life in Holland. He asked very specific questions about synagogues, Zionist matters, certificates, our membership of youth movements. He told us we now had the right to go to the Theresienstadt ghetto, but if we said anything there about our experiences in Ravensbrück, or about anything we knew, 'then you will' - this was the phrase he used - 'be going up the chimney.'
 * Charlotte Salzberger, as quoted in Eichmann Before Jerusalem by Bettina Stangneth (2015).

 * The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal. From the viewpoint of our legal institutions and of our moral standards of judgment, this normality was much more terrifying than all the atrocities put together, for it implied — as had been said at Nuremberg over and over again by the defendants and their counsels — that this new type of criminal, who is in actual fact hostis generis humani, commits his crimes under circumstances that make it well-nigh impossible for him to know or to feel that he is doing wrong.
 * Hannah Arendt in Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963) epilogue.

 * He complained regularly about death-camp quotas not being fulfilled, about the problems of getting all French Jews to the death camps, and about the intermittent failure of the Italians to cooperate. As late as 1944, he played a leading, and open, role in the killing of Hungarian Jews, and in August of that year he reported that four million Jews had died in the death camps and another two million at the hands of the Nazis' mobile extermination units in Eastern Europe. At no point did he show the least compunction over the planning, organization and execution of what became known as the Holocaust.
 * Roger Cohen in "Why? New Eichmann Notes Try to Explain" in The New York Times (13 August 1999).

 * In the Sassen tapes, Eichmann ... was not yet under the threat of the gallows, and he was not cautious. Here was Eichmann without any remorse, boasting and glorying in what he had done. Here Eichmann reveals himself as a passionate zealous man, happy to celebrate a weekend with his mistress at a Hungarian lake, slightly surprised to find that the killings and roundups in Hungary had gone so easily ... [The tapes] reveal an arrogant, boastful man, disdainful of his subordinates, totally indifferent to the fate of his victims and distant from his family. Capable of peacefully playing the violin at home, he is not above tearing up his wife’s bible and throwing it at her. He is a man cocooned in self-deception. Above all, he is a man passionate about his job and his mission ... Essentially a desk man, Eichmann fantasizes about himself in the [tapes] as a man of action and courage, deftly rewriting history in the process.
 * Alan Rosenthal, "Eichmann, Revisited" in The Jerusalem Post (20 April 2011).

 * This was no contented man in his fifties, reading for pleasure: the peaceable rabbit farmer was capable of throwing books against the wall and tearing them to pieces, filling them with aggressive marginalia, insults, and invective, and covering mountains of paper with his commentaries, writing like a man possessed. Pencils snapped under the force of his scribbling; his fighting spirit was unbroken. The ideological warrior had not been defeated ... His writing was not an attempt to comprehend his own actions; it arose from the fact that people were condemning the crimes he felt to be his life's work.
 * Bettina Stangneth describing Eichmann in Argentina in Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer (2015). ISBN 978-0307950161.

 * He is responsible because of the conspiracy and the plots for all that happened to the Jewish people — from the shores of the Arctic Ocean to the Aegean Sea, from the Pyrenees to the Urals.
 * Gideon Hausner as quoted in The New York Times (27 June 1961).

 * Mister death who signs papers then eats telegraphs simply: Shoot them then eats
 * Denise Levertov in "During the Eichmann Trial".

 * People knew exactly who was meant by "a repulsive, unpleasant fellow, you shake hands with him and you want to wash your hands afterward." Erring on the side of caution, Eichmann corrected this denunciation for his superiors: "I make sure I never shake hands with these Jews."
 * Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem (2015).

 * If we had fifty Eichmanns, we would have won the war.
 * Heinrich Müller, about Adolf Eichmann's devotion. Quoted in "And the Crooked Shall be Made Straight" by Jacob Robinson - Jews (1965), page 37.

 * Eichmann became the "Nuremberg Ghost," ever present but impossible to lay hands on. His name haunted all the war crimes trials that followed.
 * Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem (2015).

 * Eichmann is 34 or 35 years old, a very active, adventurous man. He felt that this act against Jews was necessary and was fully convinced of its necessity and correctness, as I was.
 * Rudolf Höss [to Leon Goldensohn, April 9, 1946].

 * Eichmann continually managed to inveigle his Jewish negotiating partners into making concessions and cooperating, using nothing but their hope that by "negotiating" with him, they could prevent something worse from happening. How terrible their realization must have been that they were caught in a trap. On the transports, in the camps, and in direct sight of the apparatus of extermination, the Nazis' involuntary collaborators realized what they had been involved in. If they did not feel then, in this moment of realization, that they had fallen victim to a diabolical perpetrator, Satan in human form, then when? The terrible visions that emerged later of "Caligula" and "Grand Inquisitor Eichmann," the heartless monster, were rooted in these moments of unavoidable insight into the true aims of National Socialist anti-Jewish policies... "Eichmann" became the embodiment of this mechanism: it was the name the Jewish community representatives knew, and people trusted them. So the name walked abroad among the Nazis' victims, though the man himself was nowhere to be seen and was not immediately responsible for their suffering. This explains the memories of many Holocaust survivors of encounters with Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann, when in all likelihood they never met him... the victims were able to see Eichmann in every jackbooted Nazi or arrogant inspector who screamed at them only because "Eichmann" had become much more than just a person. The name was the symbol and the guarantor of the power that was crushing people, and it no longer mattered who actually embodied and exploited it. The threat inherent in that name went far beyond what a faceless, nameless bureaucracy could ever have achieved.
 * Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer (2015). ISBN 978-0307950161.

 * Nearly four decades after being buried in Israel's state archives, a rambling manuscript by Adolf Eichmann, the chief transport technician behind the Nazi death machine, was finally released to the public yesterday, reeking of mendacity, self-interest, and delusion. Penned in jail as he awaited his execution, the man who dispatched hundreds of thousands of Jews to their deaths in the gas chambers ended his days trying to convince the world he was a mere Nazi underling, a lickspittle who was only obeying orders and who went to the gallows tortured by regret at having been dazzled and led astray by the Third Reich's leaders. … time and again, he absolves himself of responsibility for the Nazi regime's horrendous crimes, painting a picture of himself as a nature-loving, simple, practical figure, who was brought up (in Austria, though he was German-born) to believe in discipline. He casts himself as a man who could not understand why his superiors kept embroiling him in death, instead of giving him the desk job he so coveted and clamoured for. A man who was horrified to witness the gassing of Jews in a mobile execution van. A man who loved his family, who made friends before the war with Jews and dissidents. … Almost every chapter contains an explanation of how little authority that he — the head of the Gestapo section in Berlin whose job it was to locate, deport, and exterminate Jews — actually held.
 * Phil Reeves in "The Nazi Legacy: Eichmann" in The Independent (1 March 2000).

 * The people who met [Eichmann in hiding]... met a pleasant man who didn't drink or gamble, organized a fair distribution of rations, knew his way around the "red tape," was intelligent and polite, and paid his rent on time. This charming man with the slight Viennese accent clearly didn't have a provincial upbringing. "He was such a quiet, unassuming person. On warm summer evenings he often played his violin for us. He played Mozart, Schubert, Bach and Beethoven" ... his general technical knowledge meant he could fix broken equipment, and he was the only one in the area with a radio, on which he particularly liked to follow the news ... even the children loved him: he helped tutor them and gave them chocolate.
 * Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer (2015). ISBN 978-0307950161.

Links related to the trial

 * "The Nazi Hunter: Capturing Eichmann, the Architect of the Holocaust", The Atlantic YouTube channel (18 December 2019)
 * The Eichmann Trial at the Yad Vashem website
 * The Trial of Adolf Eichmann: Record of Proceedings
 * The Eichmann Trial, Session no. 46 on YouTube
 * "With Me Are Six Million Accusers" an online site marking the 50th anniversary of the Eichmann Trial
 * "The Eichmann Trial: 50 Years After": selected documents from the [[Israel State Archives
 * "Eichmann Prosecutor Interview: A Conversation with Justice Gabriel Bach, Senior Prosecutor in the Adolf Eichmann Trial" by Frank Tuerkheimer, Professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School
 * "Adolf Eichmann in Israel: Portraits of a Nazi War Criminal", life.time.com

title: Adolf Eichmann


text:
Recess (TV series)

Recess is a Disney Channel animated series about the mischievous adventures of 6 children during recess, when the children form their own structured society. It spawned the films Recess: School's Out, Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade, and Recess: All Growed Down.

The Break In [1.1a]

 * TJ: Can't you see that I'm trapped in here? I've counted the ceiling tiles 13 times, guys. There's 1,678. You hear me? 1,678!

 * King Bob: [Talking about T.J.] Kids of the playground. The dumb kid should be free!

 * Gretchen: Look shiny metal! Do you like the shiny metal? If you help us we'll give you the shiny metal. What you say kindergartners?
 * The head kindergartner: Let's eat 'em!

 * Vince: Bob's king of the playground. If he helps the other kids will follow.
 * Spinelli: He better help or he's gonna meet my good friend Madam Fist!

 * Kid next to King Bob: My mom called me some dumb kid this morning.

The New Kid [1.1b]

 * Mikey: There are lots of people without names.
 * Gus: Like who?
 * Mikey: Like the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, the Unknown Soldier, and the other four guys in the Jackson Five.

 * Gus: I've been to 12 schools in the last 6 years, I never met anyone so friendly, it's so - so beautiful!

The Experiment [1.2a]

 * Butch: The future... is girls! Boys kissing girls! Girls kissing boys! And you know what else?! WE'RE ALL GONNA LIKE IT! [laughs diabolically]

 * Spinelli: Boys kissing girls? Girls kissing boys?
 * Gretchen: Surely, there must be some mistake. I mean, this defies the rules of nature and physics. Besides that, it's disgusting!
 * T.J.: But Butch says it's the future. His brother Joey told him.
 * Spinelli: Oh, please! The day I stop caring about dodgeball is the day the Earth starts spinning around the sun.
 * Gretchen: Which explains the D minus you got in Science.

 * [After Spinelli and T.J. kiss]
 * Spinelli: Ack! Puke city!
 * T.J.: Quick, someone get me some mouthwash!

 * T.J.: You realize we may have to get married after this.
 * Spinelli: You realize I may have to kill you after this.

The Great Jungle Gym Standoff [1.2b]

 * Spinelli: The last one to Ol' Rusty has to give Ms. Finster a sponge bath!
 * Randall: Hey! That's my job!

Jinxed [1.3a]

 * Gretchen: The kids' unwritten code of honor is what makes us different from adults, different from animals. What would we be without it?
 * Gus: Adult animals?
 * Spinelli: Nothing, that's what!

 * Gus:Its My Harmonica!
 * Ashleys:Your What?
 * Gus:Its My...
 * Ashleys:Harmonica! Jinx!

 * Spinelli: Hey! One of you drop five bucks?
 * Ashleys: Oooo...
 * T.J., Vince, Spinelli, Gretchen, and Mikey: Scandalous! Jinx!

Officer Mikey [1.3b]

 * [looking for Ashley A's little sister, Britney]
 * Spinelli: We seek a formal sit-down by she who goes by the name Britney. :[four Kindergartners come forward] Er... Britney A.

First Name Ashley [1.4a]

 * Spinelli: What's the matter? You got crayons in your ears? Get to the end of the line Randall before I give you the end of my fist!

 * T.J.: We're all Ashleys, too.
 * Ashley A: But, you aren't even girls!
 * Gus: Hey, it's the nineties.

 * Ashley A: By junior high we may be dating some guys named Paul or ... or Joe!

 * T.J.: There are a lot of Ashleys out there, but there's only one Spinelli.

To Finster With Love [1.4b]

 * Finster: [reading out grades] A… A… A… Ah, Randall, my trusted spy. A plus! A… A… A…

 * Finster: F… F… F… Hmm. Randall, my trusted spy. The only kid around here I can count on. Ah, he's done so much for me. Hmm… D minus. F… F… F…

 * Hank the Janitor: Do you hear music?
 * Finster: Whenever I look at you.

 * T.J.: Hey, Ms. Finster?
 * Finster: Yes, Detwiler?
 * T.J.: ...Are those your shoes, or did you mug a clown on the way to school?
 * Finster: Why, you little HOOLIGAN! [Runs after T.J.]
 * T.J.: She's back!

King Gus [1.5a]

 * Gus: [singing] Gus, Gus, O Mighty Gus, king of all the playground, Gus, Gus, O Shiny Gus, we're glad such a great king we found.

 * Mikey: Madness! Madness!

Big Brother Chad [1.5b]

 * Kindergartener: Vince. We give up to you our two front teeth. Worth 50 cents street value.

 * Gretchen: Take it from someone who knows. Your brother is definitely a geek.

 * Chad: Hey Vince! Check it out, I just beat myself at three-dimensional chess.

 * King Bob: He's nothing but a nerd! I'm so depressed!

 * Vince: Ooh, I'm quivering in my high-tops!

 * Chucko: Stay out of this, geekoid, or you're next!

Speedy, We Hardly Knew Ye [1.6b]

 * King Bob: Digging a hole in sixth-grade territory? How dare you! Take them to the dodgeball wall!

I Will Kick No More Forever [1.7a]

 * Vince: [watching an old video of himself] Man, did you see that kick? That was in my prime!
 * Gretchen: Vince, that was 2 weeks ago.

The Kid Came Back [1.7b]

 * [Peanut Butter Kid leaves them with his sandwich]
 * Mikey: This is all we have to remember him by.

The Trial [1.9b]

 * King Bob: [to Randall] You threw a dirt clod during a time out? She was right, you are a worm.

 * Ashley A: No, no, wait. I say we give her a swirlie. [Spinelli's eyes flush]

Teachers Lounge [1.10a]

 * Principal Prickly: [telling a joke] So then I say to the superintendent, "That's no kindergartener, that's my wife!"

Randall's Reform [1.10b]

 * T.J.: [reading] I did it. Signed, T.J.?
 * Finster: AHA, a confession!

 * Finster: The criminal always returns to the scene of the crime.
 * T.J.: But Miss Finster, you dragged me here!

The Great Can Drive [1.11b]

 * [Ms. Grotke's and Ms. Furley's classes are tug-of-warring over the last can either class needs to win the can drive, which Ms. Eudora Finkelstein is holding very tightly, while Mikey's whistle gets everyone's attention]
 * Mikey: Don't you see what's happening? You're all acting like animals. Can drives aren't about winning or losing; they're about helping people and being generous and sharing our bounty. Who wins and who loses matters not. So let's just put all the cans together and forget about that dumb turkey dinner. What do you say?
 * T.J.: There's only one thing to say. Give me that can!
 * [The tug of war resumes. This time, Ms. Finkelstein breathes heavily, refusing to handle the can any longer. The can slips away from both sides' grasps and rolls all the way to the can pyramid]
 * Mr. Prickly: The pyramid! NOOOOOOOOO!
 * [The can touches the bottom of the pyramid, which begins to topple over]
 * Ms. Finkelstein: Look out, she's gonna blow!
 * [Everyone flees away from the stage to avoid getting splattered by the falling cans of the pyramid, but they get splattered anyway. A broken can of peas rolls to Mikey's feet and Mikey picks it up before telling both classes off]
 * Mikey: Look what you've all done! Now nobody's gonna have a good Thanksgiving!
 * [The rest of the main six and the Ashleys look at each other sadly while Mikey walks off, and hang their heads in shame over what they did]

Kids in the Mist [1.12b]

 * Gretchen: [laughing, then starts choking] I think I might have swallowed my retainer.

Parents' Night [1.13a]

 * Flo Spinelli: You must be B.J. He's the one our little honey bunny has the crush on.
 * Spinelli: Mom!

The Hypnotist [2.1b]

 * [Prickly, hypnotized into thinking he's 6 years old, runs wild through the playground, and pulls Spinelli's hat down over her eyes]
 * Spinelli: ...Did he just do what I think he did?
 * Mikey: Yup.
 * Spinelli: [She screams to show her reaction; she tries to run after Prickly, but gets grabbed by Mikey] LET ME AT 'IM! LET ME AT 'IM!

Mama's Girl [2.2a]

 * T.J.: [shocked as Miss Grotke gives him a C-minus grade on his book report] C-minus?! Hey, no fair, Miss Grotke.
 * Miss Grotke: I'm sorry, T.J., but a roller coaster ride I couldn't put down, is not a book report. It's a cover blurb.
 * T.J.: Oops. [chuckles awkwardly]

 * Spinelli: Look out, MAMAAAAA!

 * [As she runs away, Spinelli slows down and looks at the sidewalk; she examines and takes notice at the neon sign that says "Manny Matt's Grill" on the window. As she is still looking, the letters of the sign blew off and began to say what each word says when some letters are blew off.]
 * Spinelli: "Ma, Ma's, Gr ll...?" [closes her eyes and covers her ears, having a frustrated expression on her face; feels the world mocking her, and begins to exclaim a powerful scream to show her reaction] NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! [While screaming, she turns around and consumes the camera as the German Sheppard dog still repeatedly shouts, "Mama's girl!" The scene ends with a black screen, in which her throat is already zoomed in, stopping the scream and ending the scene]

 * Gus: Uh, sorry, guys. I guess this wasn't the best time for me to practice my cursive.

Outcast Ashley [2.2b]

 * [T.J. and friends see Gretchen approaching them in a big box]
 * T.J.: Gretchen, is that you?
 * Gretchen: T.J.? [bumps into the fence]

The Game [2.3a]

 * [Ajimbo has turned everyone into zombies who try to force the game onto T.J.]
 * T.J.: No! I won't give in. I won't let this thing beat me!
 * Mikey: [zombielike] It's no use, T.J. Eventually you will join us.

Gus' Last Stand [2.4a]

 * Gus: Gosh! Who'd have thought? Little Belgium winning over big Germany!
 * Lt. Griswald: Winning? Ha! They got the stuffing kicked out of them!

 * Gus: I guess I lost the battle, sir.
 * Lt. Griswald: Yes, but it looks like you won the war.

The Challenge [2.5a]

 * Principal Prickly: [shouting] Not only is my reputation as an educator on the line but also my reputation as a man! So get out there and win, I tell you, win! [Kids stare at him] Oh, and have fun.

Wild Child [2.5b]

 * Gretchen: Repeat after me. The rain...
 * Kindergartener: The wain...
 * Gretchen: In Spain...
 * Kindergartener: In Pain...
 * Gretchen: Falls mainly in the moist temperate zone northwest of the Pyranees mountains.
 * Kindergartener: Bloobidy bloo bloo bloo!

The Substitute [2.6a]

 * Mr. E: That information comes at a terrible price. Are you willing to pay it?
 * [Phil shrinks back into his seat]

 * Gretchen: Mr. E, I hope the fact that the government has quashed my research won't hurt my final grade.
 * Mr. E: It happens, Grundler. Count on an A.

 * T.J.: Say, Mr. E., there's something that's been bugging me: could you tell me what the E stands for?
 * Mr. E: No.
 * T.J.: You are so cool!

Gretchen and the Secret of Yo [2.6b]

 * Mikey: I just don't get it? Why would the chicken wanna make us think he taste good? Doesn't he know what happens to tasty chickens?

 * Gretchen: Well, excuse me! For once in my life I'm good at a real sport! A sport with trophies! It's important to me, okay?! More important than any science fair, quiz bowl, or chess tournament I've ever been in! If you guys can't support me, then so-rry!

The Girl Was Trouble [2.7a]

 * Vince: Man, someone must be in big trouble. Finster hasn't canceled recess since Billy Stoler short-sheeted her support hose.
 * T.J.: She was limping for three days.
 * Randall: [as Miss Finster appears; through megaphone] Ten-hut!
 * [The kids all line-up]
 * Miss Finster: This week, we've since a crime wave unparalleled in Third Street history. Someone on this playground is responsible for breaching nearly every rule he hold sacred.
 * Mikey: Even the cannibalism taboo?
 * Miss Finster: Evidence connects a single mastermind with these crimes. One kid who's done it all. Written graffiti, mocking the faculty, de-faced restrooms, stolen food from the cafeteria, and made a complete mess of the mess area! This someone will be going directly to Principal Prickly's office. This someone will receive severe punishment befitting these atrocities. This someone… is Gretchen P. Grundler!
 * [The kids all gasp in shock at Gretchen]
 * T.J.: Miss Finster, Gretchen's the best kid in school!
 * Vince: Yeah, you're making a terrible mistake!
 * Spinelli: Tell her, Gretchen!
 * Gretchen: No, guys, she's right. Take me away, Miss Finster.
 * T.J.: Gretchen, what are you saying?
 * Gretchen: Don't worry yourself over me anymore, T.J. I'm nothing but trouble.
 * [The episode's title appears]
 * Miss Finster: March, young lady!
 * T.J.: Gretchen gone bad? It can't be!
 * Mikey: Down is up, black is white and the Millennium approaches!
 * [Miss Finster escorts Gretchen into the school and to Principal Prickly's office]
 * Gretchen: [narrating] I know what you're asking. How did it happen? How did Gretchen Grundler, straight-A student end up taking the long walk to the principal's office? It's a story as long as a line had gone so old, but without the free refills.
 * Ms. Lemon: [typing her typewriter] We've been expecting you, Grundler. Take a seat, Principal Prickly will be with you in a moment.
 * [Gretchen takes a seat next to Sue Bob Murphy]
 * Sue Bob: Well, well, if it ain't Goody-Two-Shoes Grundler. What'd you do, Grundler, get too many A's?
 * Gretchen: I'm not in the mood, Murphy.

 * Gretchen: It all started about a week ago on my birthday. [Flashback story beings on her birthday; narrating] It was a great day. My favorite Uncle George gave me the best gift I ever got. A Galileo handheld personal computer. Galileo was a dream come true. A powerful multi-function PC that fit in the palm of my hand. It had sixteen megabytes of RAM, internet access, and cute howdy froggy desktop icons that made computing fun.
 * Galileo: Hey, Gretchen, don't look now but, you've got mail.
 * Vince: Whoa, that thing talks!
 * Galileo: Don't feel threatened, Vince. Computers are only as smart as the humans who programmed them.

 * Gretchen: [narrating] That's right, I loved a machine. Like a sister or kind uncle. Maybe it's sick, maybe it's twisted. But love it, I did. Then one day, everything changed.

 * Gus: I looked in Miss Grotke's class.
 * Vince: And I checked the P.E. room. Nothing.
 * Gretchen: This is a nightmare!
 * T.J.: Let's go over this again. You asked the diggers, you talked to the Ashleys, you checked the Lost and Found... [Gretchen's eyes widen open] You did check the Lost and Found, didn't you?
 * [Gretchen gets up from the swing and quickly runs to the Lost and Found]
 * Mikey: I guess that was a no.
 * Gretchen: The Lost and Found box, Menlo. I need to see it, now!
 * Menlo: That's not the way it works. You tell me what you lost, and I'll tell you if it's in the box. Those are the rules.
 * Gretchen: [sighs] One Galileo handheld PC Model G55 serial number 76502.
 * Menlo: Oh yeah, [brings out the box] spiffy little piece of tech. 300 meg chip, voice activated control, cellular email.
 * Gretchen: Yes, yes, that's it, is it in there?
 * Menlo: Nope, I just like asking. I do remember seeing something like that.
 * Gretchen: Where?
 * Menlo: I don't know. My memory's a little hazy.
 * Gretchen: [grabs and pulls him by the collar; sharply] Out with it!
 * Menlo: OK! OK! Just don't hurt me. Yesterday at recess, I was…
 * Gretchen: [narrating] Menlo sang like an old guy in the shower when nobody's home. He told me who had Galileo. It was Greg Skeets, the graffiti kid, guy who couldn't spell "computer," much less use one. Menlo told me where to find him. I don't make it a habit to slum in the Third Street School underworld. But if I wanted Galileo back, I had to hold my nose and plunge in.

 * Mundy: Wow, you smart kids know some important stuff after all.
 * Gretchen: Now what about your end of the bargain?
 * Mundy: I, uh, traded your thingamajig to Kirsten Kurst for a bite of her pizza.
 * Gretchen: [shocked] You mean, Kurst the Worst? [narrating] Skeets and Mundy were one thing, but Kurst… she was a force of danger.

 * Gretchen: [enters the cafeteria and finds Kurst in the kitchen, eating all the food from the fridge; fiercely] Kurst! I want my Galileo computer! I know Mundy gave it to you and I want it back!
 * Kurst: That piece of junk? I traded it. You can't eat a copy thingy. Now butt off! I'm about to enjoy an all-I-can-eat buffet, courtesy of Third Street School.
 * Gretchen: But, but-
 * Kurst: You heard me, blow! Go on, dangle!
 * Gretchen: [narrating] Maybe I should've just turned around and walked away. Maybe I should've gone to the authorities and let the system do its job. Maybe I should've done a lot things, but I didn't. Before I knew it hit me, something inside me snapped. [shouting infuriated] KURST!!! I WANT MY GALILEO, AND I WANT IT NOW!
 * Kurst: Oh, you do, do ya? Well, that's too bad, 'cause I handed it over to Señor Pudding!
 * [Krust and Gretchen start throwing food to each other; fade back to the present]
 * Gretchen: I got Kirsten Kurst a couple of times, then she blindsided me with a bowl of tapioca. When I came to my senses, she was gone. I managed to sneak out of there, unseen, but by the time I was done wiping pudding out of my hair, Finster was all over me like a pig on sorbet.
 * Sue Bob: But I don't get it. How'd Finster finger you?
 * Ms. Lemon: It was wasn't so tough, girly. Gretchen here, left a trail of clues a mile wide. "Nefarious" happens to be the word she won last year's spelling bee with. The viscosity of liquid soap was the subject of her blue ribbon science fair project, and finally, here's a tissue, for Pete's sake, you missed a spot of tapioca on your glasses. Oh, you're smart, Grundler, but it's all book and no street. [laughs]
 * Gretchen: [takes off her glasses and wipes the tapioca spot with the tissue] Anyway, I guess you could say I got what's coming to me.

 * Ms. Lemon: [answers the phone] Yes, sir? I see. [hangs up] Okay, Grundler. He'll see you now.
 * Gretchen: [gets up, then to Sue Bob] Wish me luck. [enters Principal Prickly's office]
 * Principal Prickly: Well, well, Miss Grundler, you're the last person I would've expected to go rotten, but facts speak for themselves. As much as it pains me, I'm afraid I must lower the boom on you.
 * Gretchen: I understand, sir.

 * Gretchen: [narrating] It was a crazy end to a crazy story. Principal Prickly got so interested in what I was showing him on his computer and forgot about taking away my recess, though I did have to clean up the messes. Still, I got Galileo back, I survived my sore journey through the Underworld. And I’m never going back there again.

Pharaoh Bob [2.8b]

 * King Bob: So shall it be written, so shall it be done.

 * King Bob: I just wanted to be remembered.
 * Gretchen: I know Bob. But the thing is great leaders aren't remembered for the things they build. They're remembered for the things they do.

The Story of Whomps [2.9a]

 * T.J.: Level 5? Man, this whomps!
 * Principal Prickly: Make that level 6! Ready to push me any further!?!?!

Economics of Recess [2.10a]

 * Gretchen: Everyone either works for you or just stands around and does nothing.
 * T.J.: Good point. Gus, start charging kids for standing around. We'll call it a loitering fee.

 * T.J.: I don't need anyone! I'm a self-made boy! I'm king of the world!

The Beauty Contest [2.13b]

 * Ashley A.: Like, these are the entry forms for the official kiddie cosmetics “Little Miss Blush” beauty contest.
 * Ashley Q.: Pageants, nature’s way of pointing out perfection.
 * Ashley A.: I’m totally sure an Ashley would take the crown this year. So fill out your entry forms and take them please and dazzle em'...
 * Spinelli: [off screen] Like totally special delivery!

Dodgeball City [3.2a]

 * Mikey: Fiddle on, thoughtless Nero, as your precious empire burns all around you!

 * Hector: Eventually I stopped calling him Safety Man and started calling him just Gus, but to me, he'll always be... El Diablo!

Lord of the Nerds [3.5b]

 * Store owner: Knarf! Oh, forgive me! I didn't mean to cross a level 42 sword master!
 * Frank: I'll let you go this time, but watch out. The sword of Ganymede now hangs perilously close to your skull.

Tattletale Heart [4.4b]

 * [The episode begins with the gang eating lunch in the cafeteria as Gus drinks his entire carton of chocolate milk]
 * T.J.: [amazed] Wow, Guster, what a set of lungs!
 * Mikey: Yeah, but maybe you shouldn't have finished your milk first. I mean, aren't you gonna need it for your peanut butter sandwich?
 * Gus: I couldn't help myself, guys. I love chocolate milk. Whoever thought that putting candy in milk was a genius. [takes a bite of his sandwich] An evil genius. Be right back.

 * Spinelli: Oh, man, I got more food on me from cleaning than I did in battle!
 * Gus: Guys, I can put an end to this if I just told on…
 * T.J.: [as he and the others cover his mouth; sternly] Don't say it, Gus.
 * Gus: But you don't understand! It was… [his friends cover his mouth again]
 * T.J.: Gus, I'm serious. Don't say it. That'll make you a tattletale.

 * Miss Finster: Care for a soda, Randall?
 * Randall: Gee, thanks, Miss Finster. Don't mind if I do.

 * Miss Finster: Next!
 * Gus: [shouting in protest] YOU'LL NEVER MAKE ME TELL! THERE'S A CODE! AN UNBREAKABLE KID CODE! [covers his mouth]
 * Miss Finster: A code, eh? Well, let's just see if we can't crack it. Forget the alphabets, sonny, you're next!

 * Randall: [berating Gus as he's taken away] Griswald, you ratted me out! You're a tattletale, you hear me?! A TATTLETALE!!!

The Biggest Trouble Ever [4.7a]

 * Miss Finster: You six are in the biggest trouble ever!

 * Spinelli: Man, oh, man. My mom and dad didn't take too kindly to the news last night.
 * Gus: Pop says I'm not allowed to have another accident until I'm 30.
 * Mikey: People were crying in the interviews! It was tearing me apart!
 * T.J.: Look, first thing we do when we get to school is knock on Prickly's door, explain our side of the story, and apologize up and down.

 * Miss Finster: Time to receive your new tools. [holds out a bucket of water and some toothbrushes]
 * Gus: But I already brushed my teeth.
 * Miss Finster: Oh, they're not for your teeth.

 * [The Recess gang are peeling onions while weeping tearfully due to its reaction]
 * Mikey: [tearfully] It's hard to tell where the onion-crying stops and the loss-of-a-carefree-childhood crying begins.
 * Gretchen: It's going to be okay, Mikey.
 * Vince: What are you talking about, "brains?" We're in the biggest trouble ever!
 * Gretchen: I'm perfectly aware our situation is hopeless, Vince. I was really trying to console Mikey.
 * T.J.: Guys, we got to stay together. The adults are already doing enough to punish us. We shouldn't punish each other.

 * Miss Finster: Any chance you have a plan for this one, Detweiler?
 * T.J.: No, ma'am, I do not.

Lost Leader [6.3b]
Erwin Lawson: "Aw Man, We lose!"

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Recess (TV series)


text:
User talk:157.238.195.242

~ Kalki 16:59, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

- InvisibleSun 17:19, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:157.238.195.242


title: 1412


text:
1431

1431

title: 1431


title: 1456


text:
User talk:81.86.73.148

Thanks for experimenting with Wikiquote. Your test worked, and has now been reverted or removed. Please use Sandbox for any other tests you want to do, since testing in articles will normally be reverted quickly. Please see the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our compendium of quotations. For a quick overview of what Wikiquote is, read Wikiquote, and also What Wikiquote is not for a list of common activities that Wikiquote does not support. --Aphaia 18:33, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:81.86.73.148


text:
User talk:71.62.14.236

~ UDScott 20:48, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:71.62.14.236


text:
Talk:Cat's Cradle

Spacing between quotes
Please excuse me if I'm duplicating things that have been done and discussed in the past, but I've just finished a general clean-up of this page, along with a re-organization (by character name), and in checking it over just now I realized how difficult it was to keep the quotes visually separated. Something about the formatting just didn't really work well. The solution that seems to me to work best is to double-space between quotes. I realize that increases the amount of white-space on the page, something I'm generally not very fond of, but (for me at least) it helps tremendously' in keeping the page looking neat and organized. With single-spacing the quotes seems to all run together, but the extra line keep them separate. Is doing this OK? Ed Fitzgerald 21:12, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
 * This approach has been tried before with some of the pages for poetry that have been created. See this Village pump discussion for more on it. Unfortunately, there is no consensus on the issues as yet, although the templates only show a single space between lines. I also would like to comment on your reorganization effort - I know that it probaby took a lot of work to do, but I had always thought that the convention was to not separate quotes by character for literary works, but instead to present them in the order in which they appeared in the work (usually grouped by chapter, where appropriate). ~ UDScott 21:24, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Hmmm. I thought I had read that separation by subject was discouraged, because it encompassed some editorial decisions about what the proper subject or topic was, and that sounded reasonable to me.  I didn't think this was a problem with dividing by character.   I went with this option because it saved a lot of space (all of the repeated "said by so-and-so" for each quote").  If the "said by so-and-so" description is legitimate (and I can't believe that it wouldn't be, since it's a simple observational description, with no more editorial POV than the selection of the quote itself; significantly less, actually), then dividing by character can be looked at as simply grouping together all the "so-and-so's", and really can't be thought of as requiring any additional editorial input. Ed Fitzgerald 22:50, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Another thought about the organization by character: I think it's generally more accessible to the everday poster. I don't know how many people have the source material in front of them when they post a quote, and how many do as I generally do, which is to write it down somewhere and then post it at a later date.  For people who don't have the source available, if they haven't written down the location in the book (which is something I almost never do for works of book-length fiction) they're not going to be aware of which chapter it's in, and won't know where to post it if the page is organized sequentially, by chapter.  On the other hand, many quotes from works of fiction are strongly linked to its characters, which means it's more likely that someone not working from the original source will remember the character and know where to put the quote, even if it's not in sequential order in the character-section.  I would think that would be an advantage in keeping the collection relatively organized without a great deal of oversight. Ed Fitzgerald 01:36, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I guess I can see your point, but the logic behind organizing quotes based on when they appear in a literary work is so that editors can more easily verify that they are accurate (a primary goal of this project). It is much easier to do so if they are organized by chapter or page. But I'll let others chime in on this point before pushing it further. ~ UDScott 12:53, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I wholeheartedly concur with the emphasis on accuracy. It was quite interesting to see, when I was going through Cat's Cradle looking for the placement of these quotes, how many were slightly paraphrased, as if they were memorized and then posted.  The sense was usually fairly correct, but with some frequency the wording was slightly off.  In one, for instance "cosmology" had been substituted for "cosmogony". (I'm not talking about simple typos, which I'm as prone to as anyone -- I see someone just corrected "is" to "in" in one that I posted.)  So I'm on the same page about accuracy and also verifiability -- it's the reason that I organized within each character by placement in the book. Ed Fitzgerald 03:08, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree that re-organization by character is not a good idea for general literary works, (personally I've never even liked it much with films and such, but I could see it's popularity, and sometimes its convenience or even its necessity in many cases there). I also have usually not liked the creation of "theme" sections within articles for people or works. My own preferences in nearly all articles tend to the sequential and chronological, but I can agree that is not always immediately possible in all cases; on a few occasions I have made a subsection "quotes not yet sequenced" within pages (or sections) for specific works, when time or other resources were not available for me to do further work in sourcing or organizing the material.
 * On the spacing issue, I tend to prefer the standard single lines as simpler and easier to maintain, but I can see the appeal of the double spacing that has been increasingly used on some pages, and haven't really objected to it at any point. I think it should probably remain an option for editiors, if they want to use it on pages they have created or are willing to maintain, at least until some better formatting tweaks can be developed, but I don't see it as advantageous enough to promote it as a preferred format. ~ Kalki 14:57, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm glad to hear that there are some formatting tweaks in development - it does seem that standard Wiki formatting leaves something to be desired when presenting what are essentially long lists of short quotes. Ed Fitzgerald 02:48, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Incidentally, I don't think I ever said explicitly why I try to include the character name in quotes pulled from fiction (books, plays and films). It's because of the tendency, once a quote has been pulled and published, for people to ascribe the opinion or attitude in the quote to the author, whether or not the author actually agrees with it. It's undeniable that writers, in the interest of storytelling, creating conflict, and so on, create characters who express opinions that the writer disagrees with -- although frequently one (or several) seem to be stand-ins for the views of the author. Providing the name of the character with the quote helps to emphasize that these are ideas that are not necessarily directly from the author's own ideology, but instead come filtered through the character of the fictional person who says them. That's why I started to include them in my own collection, and why I think it's important to include them in published quotes whenever possible. Ed Fitzgerald 02:59, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

 * 1) If an extra space is preferred between quotations, it poses the question whether there should also be extra spacing between sections in order to create a unified presentation throughout the page. When I've used double-spacing on pages consisting of quotations for poetry and plays, I've followed this method (example here). If you choose to do it this way, however, you'll have to do all subsequent edits from the entire page rather than editing by sections.  If you edit by section, it will result in only a single space between that section and the one which follows it. 2) As for associating quotations with characters, an alternative way is to present the quotes in sequential order but with the character named after the quote (examples here and here). - InvisibleSun 04:04, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, sequential with character identification attached was certainly a possibility, but, as I wrote above, it results in a lot of duplicated information -- "said by so-and-so" attached to each quote. Grouping them together by character saved some space and made for a tighter presentation.  As for double spacing before section, I did indeed look at that, and decided it created a slightly *too* airy look.  (I am familiar with the editing/spacing problem you refer to, having come across it on Wikipedia.  My solution to that is to get the additional space by attaching a " " to the end of the text, thus forcing an additional blank line.) Ed Fitzgerald 04:28, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Organization by character
I strongly, strongly urge folks not to organize by character — for anything, but especially for literary works, for which we already have a satisfactory formatting system. I wholeheartedly agree that we need to make clear which characters are saying what in a work, because it often does not reflect the author's actual opinion. ("FREEDOM IS SLAVERY", from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, is my favorite succinct example.) Take a look at Lightning (1988) in Dean Koontz for some examples of how one can use context lines to make characters clear. Note that some quotes are bare (i.e., without the surrounding material like "Laura said"), so they must use a context line. Others simply quote an entire passage that makes this clear. Still others are terse passages that include several unattributed character quotes (because earlier, unquoted text sets up the dialog), so they need a little context show who's saying who. All of these can be done without difficulty and without artificial character organization. (I say "artificial" because such organization often includes dialog, which requires judgment calls on which character to list it under.)

The most important reason to avoid character organization is practical: Wikiquote is terrible about sourcing. The vast majority of our quotes have no sources whatsoever with which readers may verify the material. This flies in the face of the increasing importance among Wikimedia projects to ensure that all material has a factual basis; i.e., is not simply spreading Internet rumors because of the ease of editing. (Wikimedia makes a critical distinction that, even though we steadfastly maintain that anyone can edit, we want only appropriate, verifiable material in our articles. Verification is essential because we have no editorial board for fact-checking — we are the editorial board.) Wikiquote is much worse than Wikipedia about this for two main reasons: To provide accurate information, Wikiquotians must work even harder than Wikipedians against common professional practices and against the tendency of most editors to just toss material into an article.
 * 1) We have far few editors and far fewer regular editors, so the statistical likelihood of balanced editorial effectiveness is quite unpredictable. In other words, the quality varies considerably based on the current participants.
 * 2) Unlike encyclopedias, even professional quote compendiums are atrocious about their own sourcing. Consider that many of them seem to believe that "Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)" or "Abraham Lincoln, 1857" is a source. How the heck are you supposed to check something like this?

So what does this have to do with character organization? The widespread use of this system directly undermines the attempts we've made to provide source-friendly formatting and organization in several genres. When a genre like literature has such an obvious and straightforward source-friendly organization like "chronological by work, by page", it's unwise to rearrange it by character.

But, you might say, quotes by characters are logical and are very popular. True enough. But there are many things that Wikiquote (and other Wikimedia projects) avoid doing because they aren't part of the main purposes of these projects. One thing we avoid is trying to be all things to everyone. There are hundreds (thousands?) of quote sites that feed the desire to list long, copyright-violating lists of things fictional characters say. (I'm sure one can easily find several devoted to any given U.S. TV show within days of its debut.) But what sets Wikimedia apart from all the other collaborative websites is that we care about reliable sources and verifiability. Given that it's easy enough to find quotes from a character on a page even when they're listed in chrono-by-work order, our focus on clear, source-friendly organization makes considerable sense.

Finally, character organization doesn't have to be forbidden — it just shouldn't be the main system. Although they aren't encouraged, if a character has enough material to warrant a collection of their own (e.g., Darth Vader), we can have an article for this purpose. (It should still have proper sourcing, though.) Even if we wish to have a few select character collections within an article on a work, it might be possible to set these up as subheadings under "Characters" after the main chronological and/or page ordering, to emphasize the need for the primary organization while provide a few duplications in an alternate form. (Some film articles currently do this, although they follow the current guideline by putting the characters before the chrono-ordered dialog, which unfortunately discourages sourcing attempts.)

There are many ways to slice-and-dice this material. But I urge everyone to consider how to make our quotes reasonable to order and verify, especially given the fact that we'll always have far fewer quote-checkers than we will quote-adders. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 04:54, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I totally agree that formatting should never get in the way of the ability of the reader and/or editor to verify the accuracy of the material presented, but, in point of fact, organization by character does absolutely nothing in and of itself to decrease that ability, as long as the same information is provided. This entry:
 * --Character name--
 * Here is a quote.
 * -- page 27
 * has the same information content as this entry:
 * Here is a quote.
 * -- said by "character"; page 27
 * the information is simple organized differently. You'll note that I was careful (and may I here make clear that I am not suggesting that Wikiquote fiction entries be generally re-organized by character, simply defending its use in the case of this particular article, Cat's Cradle) to list quotes sequentially within each character section, so it's no harder to verify a quote with this organization than if all the quotes were listed in order. (There's a unique problem with Cat's Cradle, incidentally, which is that Vonnegut's chapters are extremely short, making organization by chapter virtually useless.  This would result in a long list of quotes, not broken up into easily graspable divisions, which would be much harder to work with, and visually boring at that.) Ed Fitzgerald 07:09, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Here is a quote.
 * -- said by "character"; page 27
 * the information is simple organized differently. You'll note that I was careful (and may I here make clear that I am not suggesting that Wikiquote fiction entries be generally re-organized by character, simply defending its use in the case of this particular article, Cat's Cradle) to list quotes sequentially within each character section, so it's no harder to verify a quote with this organization than if all the quotes were listed in order. (There's a unique problem with Cat's Cradle, incidentally, which is that Vonnegut's chapters are extremely short, making organization by chapter virtually useless.  This would result in a long list of quotes, not broken up into easily graspable divisions, which would be much harder to work with, and visually boring at that.) Ed Fitzgerald 07:09, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
 * the information is simple organized differently. You'll note that I was careful (and may I here make clear that I am not suggesting that Wikiquote fiction entries be generally re-organized by character, simply defending its use in the case of this particular article, Cat's Cradle) to list quotes sequentially within each character section, so it's no harder to verify a quote with this organization than if all the quotes were listed in order. (There's a unique problem with Cat's Cradle, incidentally, which is that Vonnegut's chapters are extremely short, making organization by chapter virtually useless.  This would result in a long list of quotes, not broken up into easily graspable divisions, which would be much harder to work with, and visually boring at that.) Ed Fitzgerald 07:09, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
 * the information is simple organized differently. You'll note that I was careful (and may I here make clear that I am not suggesting that Wikiquote fiction entries be generally re-organized by character, simply defending its use in the case of this particular article, Cat's Cradle) to list quotes sequentially within each character section, so it's no harder to verify a quote with this organization than if all the quotes were listed in order. (There's a unique problem with Cat's Cradle, incidentally, which is that Vonnegut's chapters are extremely short, making organization by chapter virtually useless.  This would result in a long list of quotes, not broken up into easily graspable divisions, which would be much harder to work with, and visually boring at that.) Ed Fitzgerald 07:09, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

 * While I appreciate the thought and effort that has gone into organizing this article by character, I do not like the result. It is currently tagged for cleanup, and I am strongly inclined to rearrange it in the conventional textual order, with context notes where necessary. (Compare this article: IMO, it does not suffer for want of chapter headings or whitespace even though the longer work uses very short chapters, nor for want of character names even though there is dialogue between characters.)

 * Regarding the tendency for some to confuse fictional expression with author opinion: The single most important contextual information is to identify the subject as a work of fiction, as this article does. There is little that can be done about those who don't do so or, worse, simply don't get it. Appreciation of fiction involves balancing suspension of disbelief with real-world perspective. With this particular book, in which metafictional themes are central, the plight of readers who don't get this is tragicomical, for they must surely miss much of the point of the work. Arranging the article by in-world attribution does not mitigate the tragedy (and I am not much amused by the comedy, for such are the Wikipedia contributors who write about fiction from an in-world perspective).

 * I digress, and descend into shameful snarkiness, but I feel strongly about this particular work. Respecting the textual order may be a small thing but I think that, notwithstanding its whimsical aspects, this is a significant literary work deserving every little bit of respect. ~ Ningauble 03:20, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Jonah
The narrotor's name is Jonah, although his parents call him John.

title: Talk:Cat's Cradle


text:
User:Dfrg.msc~enwikiquote

Hello, I'm Dfrg.msc and I hope to help out here. I'll try to help out.

I'm mainly active on the English Wikipedia, and my page on Wikipedia can be seen here:

Cheers!

Pages to watch

 * Graffiti
 * Banksy

title: User:Dfrg.msc~enwikiquote


text:
User talk:Dfrg.msc~enwikiquote

Dfrg.msc 23:37, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Dfrg.msc. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Dfrg.msc~enwikiquote that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:21, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 05:46, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Dfrg.msc~enwikiquote


text:
Naim Qassem

Naim Qassem (Arabic: نعيم قاسم ; born in Beirut in 1953) is a Shia Lebanese cleric and politician, who is the second in command of Hezbollah with the title of Deputy Secretary-General.

Quotes

 * Do we really believe in a culture of death? Absolutely not. We believe in the culture of martyrdom. Martyrdom is valuable, sacred, respectable, and great, not something that can be used as an accusation. It is an honor for us to be accused of believing in the culture of martyrdom. What is martyrdom? It is death for the sake of Allah, and in defense of what is just....Hizbullah, when it comes to matters of jurisprudence pertaining to its general direction, as well as to its Jihad direction, based itself on the decisions of the Jurisprudent. It is the Jurisprudent who permits, and it is the Jurisprudent who forbids. When the resistance of Hizbullah was launched in 1982, it was based on the jurisprudent position and decision of Imam Khomeini, who deemed fighting Israel to be an obligation, and therefore, we adhered to this opinion....Even with regard to martyrdom operation – a person cannot kill himself unless he has jurisprudent permission.

 * Whatever the costs in terms of sacrifice, the fruits of resistance are always greater than the damage generated from resignation to occupation, succumbing to its blows and acquiescing to its conditions.
 * Hizbullah - The Story from Within, page 240, 2010.

title: Naim Qassem


text:
Wikiquote:Quote of the day/April 19, 2007

Children say that people are hung sometimes for speaking the truth. ~ Jehanne Darc (Joan of Arc)