“In France, the leader of Jacobinism perished on the guillotine; with us, the change of leadership was achieved by means of arrest and banishment. The technique of the process is gentler, but its essence is the same.”

The usages and methods of warfare are thus determined by changing circumstances and, therefore, they themselves can in nowise be eternal.

Communism needs democracy like the human body needs oxygen.

Our party’s most outstanding mediocrity.

The dictatorship of the Communist Party is maintained by recourse to every form of violence.

Ideas that enter the mind under fire remain there securely and for ever.

The people will have the right to elect their representatives from a list of candidates [who have been approved by the Party].

Learning carries within itself certain dangers because out of necessity one has to learn from one’s enemies.

The pillars of Hercules of the United States are vulgarity and stupidity.

Technique is noticed most markedly in the case of those who have not mastered it.

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

Insurrection is an art, and like all arts has its own laws.

In spite of the existence of the Soviet Union, however, the proletarian revolution during the past years has not recorded a victory in any other country.

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.

The theory of the permanent revolution, in contradiction to the theory of socialism in one country, was recognized by the entire Bolshevik party during the period from 1917 to 1923.

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!

Where the sole employer is the state, [opposition] means death by slow starvation.