Leon Trotsky Quotes

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   If you cannot convince a Fascist, acquaint his head with the pavement.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• As long as I breathe I hope. As long as I breathe I shall fight for the future, that radiant future, in which man, strong and beautiful, will become master of the drifting stream of his history and will direct it towards the boundless horizons of beauty, joy and happiness! Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.
    Leon Trotsky
  

  
  
• Our planet is being turned into a filthy and evil-smelling imperialist barrack.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• All the parties of capitalist society, all its moralists and all its sycophants will perish beneath the debris of the impending catastrophe. The only party that will survive is the party of the world socialist revolution...
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• Tell me anyway--Maybe I can find the truth by comparing the lies.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• One of the most surprising things in life is the sudden realization that one has become old
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• As a general rule, man strives to avoid labor. Love for work is not at all an inborn characteristic: it is created by economic pressure and social education. One may even say that man is a fairly lazy animal. It is on this quality, in reality, that is founded to a considerable extent all human progress; because if man did not strive to expend his energy economically, did not seek to receive the largest possible quantity of products in return for a small quantity of energy, there would have been no technical development or social culture.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• Everything is relative in this world, where change alone endures. Everything is better than some things and worse than others. Which you choose to compare your experiences and situation with determines whether you will be happy and grateful or sad and jealous.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• Religions are illogical primitive ignorance. There is nothing as ridiculous and tragic as a religious government.
  

  Leon Trotsky

   

   
• Everyone has a right to be stupid, but Comrade MacDonald abuses the privilege.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• Root out the counterrevolutionaries without mercy, lock up suspicious characters in concentration camps... Shirkers will be shot, regardless of past service.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• Communism needs democracy like the human body needs oxygen.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• In inner-party politics, these methods lead, as we shall yet see, to this: the party organization substitutes itself for the party, the central committee substitutes itself for the organization, and, finally, a dictator substitutes himself for the central committee.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• Revolutions are always verbose.
  

  Leon Trotsky

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• The bourgeoisie, which far surpasses the proletariat in the completeness and irreconcilibility of its class consciousness, is vitally interested in imposing its moral philosophy upon the exploited masses. It is exactly for this purpose that the concrete norms of the bourgeois catechism are concealed under moral abstractions...The appeal to abstract norms is not a disinterested philosophic mistake but a necessary element in the mechanics of class deception.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• There are no absolute rules of conduct, either in peace or war. Everything depends on circumstances.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• When one runs with the wolves, one must howl with the pack.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• The United States is not only the strongest, but also the most terrified country.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• Abusive language and swearing are a legacy of slavery, humiliation, and disrespect for human dignity, one’s own and that of other people.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression, and violence, and enjoy it to the full.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• A means can be justified only by its end. But the end in its turn needs to be justified.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• As long as human labor power, and, consequently, life itself, remain articles of sale and purchase, of exploitation and robbery, the principle of the “sacredness of human life” remains a shameful lie, uttered with the object of keeping the oppressed slaves in their chains.
  

  Leon Trotsky

  
  
• The basis of bureaucratic rule is the poverty of society in objects of consumption, with the resulting struggle of each against all. When there is enough goods in a store, the purchasers can come whenever they want to. When there is little goods, the purchasers are compelled to stand in line. When the lines are very long, it is necessary to appoint a policeman to keep order. Such is the starting point of the power of the Soviet bureaucracy. It "knows" who is to get something and who has to wait.
  

  Leon Trotsky