Notable quotes from Albert Speer's Inside the Third Reich (the book I'm currently reading)

"For had I only wanted to, I could have found out even then that Hitler was proclaiming expansion of the Reich to the east; that he was a rank anti-Semite; the he was committed to a system of authoritaian rule; that after attaining power he intended to eliinate democratic procedures and would thereafter yield only to force. Not to have worked hat out myself; not, given my education, to have read books, magazines, and newspapers of various viewpoints...was already criminal. At this initial stage my guily was as grave as, at the end, my work for Hitler. For being in a position to know and nevertheless shunning knowledge creates direct responsibility for the consequences- from the very beginning." p19

"There is a special trap for every holder of power, whether the director of a company, the head of a state, or the ruler of a dictatorship. His favor is so desirable to his subordinates that they will sue for it by every means possible. Servility becomes endemic among his entourage...the ruler...becomes corrupted in his turn." p83