His Most Famous Quote Isn’t Really His.

Mussolini cherished addressing the populace directly as a populist leader. Thousands would gather in the congested square to listen to the charismatic orator preach about the glory of the country.

However, Mussolini wasn't the author of perhaps his most well-known proverb, "It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep." Barry Popik, an etymologist, claims that Mussolini used the proverb to honor a soldier who inscribed, "Better live one hour like a lion than a hundred years like a sheep," on a wall during the Battle of the Piave River in World War I. Even so, it is said that Tipu Sultan of Mysore in contemporary India said the adage: "I would rather live two days like a tiger than two hundred years like a sheep" as early as 1800.