He who does not wish to fight in this world, where permanent struggle is the law of life, has not the right to exist.Īny renovation which is really beneficial to human progress will always have to begin its constructive work at the level where the last stones of the structure have been laid. If a government uses the instruments of power in its hands for the purpose of leading a people to ruin, then rebellion is not only the right but also the duty of every individual citizen. The authority of the State can never be an end in itself for, if that were so, any kind of tyranny would be inviolable and sacred. Those who have a knowledge of human nature know that nobody likes to be considered a fool among his associates and in certain circles honesty is taken as an index of stupidity. On this point it may be asserted that the greatest and most enduring successes in history are mostly those which were least understood at the beginning, because they were in strong contrast to public opinion and the views and wishes of the time. Posterity will not remember those who pursued only their own individual interests, but it will praise those heroes who renounced their own happiness.
Then a day will come when a nation of citizens will arise which will be welded together through a common love and a common pride that shall be invincible and indestructible for ever.
The spirit of nationalism and a feeling for social justice must be fused into one sentiment in the hearts of the youth. But this pride, in its highest form, can be felt only by those who know the greatness of their nation. It is only when a nation is sound in all its members, physically and morally, that the joy of belonging to it can properly be intensified to the supreme feeling which we call national pride. When one half of a nation is sunk in misery and worn out by hard distress, or even depraved or degenerate, that nation presents such an unattractive picture that nobody can feel proud to belong to it. One can be proud of one's people only if there is no class left of which one need to be ashamed. Though I then rebelled against it as too hard a fate, I am grateful that I was thrown into a world of misery and poverty and thus came to know the people for whom I was afterwards to fight. People of the same blood should be in the same REICH. Even if the union were a matter of economic indifference, and even if it were to be disadvantageous from the economic standpoint, still it ought to take place. And not indeed on any grounds of economic calculation whatsoever. German-Austria must be restored to the great German Motherland.
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