Dictators Say The Darndest Things: Gaddafi’s Most Baffling Quotes

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Ernesto Ruscio / Getty Images

Muammar Gaddafi was many things: a dictator; a lover of Condoleezza Rice; a bizarre orator.

It’s all over for the ousted leader-turned-fugitive Gaddafi; the dictator was reportedly killed by rebels in his home town of Sirte. As Libyans rejoice, NewsFeed reflects on the odd leader’s oral history, because in addition to being known for his brutal regime, the tyrant also had a reputation for his eccentric personality. Often dressed in peculiar garb, he was known to speak his mind and, oh, what a mind it was.

(VIDEO: Gaddafi Talks to TIME)

Here are some of the most befuddling comments and assertions Gaddafi ever made:

“All right, then nobody can complain if we ask pregnant women to make parachute jumps.”
Defending his assertion to TIME in 1975 that women’s “defects” meant that their place was in the home. 

“Their ages are 17. They give them pills at night, they put hallucinatory pills in their drinks, their milk, their coffee, their Nescafe.” — Getting to the root of why Libyan protestors revolted.

“We can call it Isratine.” — Offering his solution to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict to an audience at Georgetown University in 2009. His suggestion involved forming one united state, for which he’d already chosen a name.

“There is no state with a democracy except Libya on the whole planet.” — Explaining how his country stood apart from the world at a conference at Columbia University in New York City in 2008.

“If a community of people wears white on a mournful occasion and another dresses in black, then one community would like white and dislike black and the other would like black and dislike white. Moreover, this attitude leaves a physical effect on the cells as well as on the genes in the body.” — In his 1975 “Green Book,” which outlined his political ideology as well as many observations about everyday life.

“I have said to you before that even if Libya and the United States enter into war, God forbid, you will always remain my son, and I have all the love for you as a son, and I do not want your image to change with me.” — Addressing President Obama in a letter, issued to the media on March 20, 2011, as American and European forces began strikes against Libya.

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