Alessandro Pavolini (September 27, 1903 – April 28, 1945) was an Italian politician, journalist, and essayist, notable for his involvement in the Fascist government during World War II. The troubled events caused by the Allied invasion of Sicily and the ousting of Mussolini in Rome brought Nazi intervention and the proclamation of a new fascist puppet state, the northern Italian Social Republic. Pavolini was integrated to the Republic's administration under Mussolini, and was immediately promoted head of the reformed PNF, the Republican Fascist Party. He was captured after a desperate escape attempt which saw him swimming across the Lake of Como and then trapped in a Mexican standoff over a half submerged rock. When he ran out of bullets, he was finally apprehended and executed by the partisans in Dongo.
- Nothing irritates us [Fascists] so much as to be taken for pillars of order. Nothing so exasperates us as the people who come to us through fear of Communism. Those good people [who are fearful of all social change] will have to realize, and we shall soon make them realize, that the weight of the social problem is now on our shoulders and that they would be wiser to fear us than to fear Communism.
- Foreign Policy Congress in Milan, June 1938. Quoted in "The decline of the intellectual" - Page 189 - by Thomas Molnar - 1994.
- He will be immediately avenged!
- About the assassination of Facist Party leader Igino Ghisellini. Quoted in "Mussolini: The Last 600 Days of Il Duce - By Ray Moseley - Page 82 - 2004.
- Only the Duce must give them orders, have you forgotten that? You have forgotten finally too much. How disgusting.
- To General Diamanti. Quoted in "Mussolini: The Last 600 Days of Il Duce - by Ray Moseley - Page 246 - 2004.
- Churchill must not forget that the Italians have nothing more to lose and they possess a courage of despair.
- Quoted in "New Invasion Fear In Italy Reported" - "New York Times" article - June 3, 1943.
- All those traitors who were morally against fascism during the shameful forty-five days following July 25 must inexorably be wiped out.
- Quoted in "Mussolini Orders Arrest Of Critics" - "New York Times" article - October 8, 1943.
- Lo squadrismo è stato la primavera della nostra vita, e chi è stato squadrista una volta lo è per sempre.
- Translation: Fascism has been our life, and he who once was a fascist (squadrista), is always a fascist.
- Quoted in "I gerarchi del fascismo" - By Marco Innocenti - Page 137 - November 14, 1943.
- Vita sei nostra amica, morte sei nostra amante.
- Translation: Life, you are our friend. Death, our lover.
- Quoted in "L'Italia del fascio" By Mario Isnenghi - Page 39.