How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph.Sentence)
Quote #1
In considering the requirements for the rehabilitation of Europe the physical loss of life, the visible destruction of cities, factories, mines and railroads was correctly estimated, but it has become obvious during recent months that this visible destruction was probably less serious than the dislocation of the entire fabric of European economy. (2.1)
This is Marshall's thesis statement for the larger speech. In it, he's describing, explicitly, the costs of war. The interesting part is that while he's allowing that the obvious physical destruction is bad, the economic devastation is worse. For someone in 1947, that was stunning, mostly because Europe was leveled in the war.
Quote #2
The feverish preparation for war and the more feverish maintenance of the war effort engulfed all aspects of national economies. Machinery has fallen into disrepair or is entirely obsolete. (2.3-4)
Once again, Marshall highlights a hidden cost. His point is that Europe has stagnated economically not just during the six years of the war itself, but even before that. They haven't been doing anything but churning out weapons, and while that will employ people during wartime, weapons aren't so handy in peacetime.
Quote #3
Under the arbitrary and destructive Nazi rule, virtually every possible enterprise was geared into the German war machine. Long-standing commercial ties, private institutions, banks, insurance companies and shipping companies disappeared, through loss of capital, absorption through nationalization or by simple destruction. (2.5-6)
When Marshall invokes Nazis, he's talking about actual, literal Nazis, not people he disagrees with politically while trying to win an argument on social media. He's saying that the Nazis pretty effectively destroyed the economy before the bombs even fell, by turning everything into war machines, and by destroying the ties that make economies work.
Quote #4
The modern system of the division of labor upon which the exchange of products is based is in danger of breaking down. (3.15)
Marshall spends this paragraph talking about the interplay between urban and rural economies. Basically, rural produces food, urban produces manufactured goods. The war made this system break down entirely. So that needs to be fixed.
Quote #5
The truth of the matter is that Europe's requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products–principally from America–are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help, or face economic, social and political deterioration of a very grave character. (4.1)
In a way, Marshall is warning about the consequences of losing not the war, but the peace. Granted, this situation only developed because of the war, and he's pointing out that a failure to do something will result in even more war. The phase "vicious cycle" might come to mind. It did with Marshall too, who used those exact words.