“The main task of Socialism – the organization of Socialist production – remains still in the future.”

Dialectical thought is related to vulgar thinking in the same way that a motion picture is related to a still photograph. The motion picture does not outlaw the still photograph but combines a series of them according to the laws of motion.

Let a man find himself, in distinction from others, on top of two wheels with a chain – at least in a poor country like Russia – and his vanity begins to swell out like his tires. In America it takes an automobile to produce this effect.

Where force is necessary, there it must be applied boldly, decisively and completely. But one must know the limitations of force; one must know when to blend force with a maneuver, a blow with an agreement.

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.

Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism.

Socialism is not an alternative to capitalism; it is an alternative to any system under which men can live as human beings.

Socialism means slavery.

A society that chooses between capitalism and socialism does not choose between two social systems; it chooses between social cooperation and the disintegration of society. Socialism is not an alternative to capitalism; it is an alternative to any system under which men can live as human beings.

Socialism is not spontaneous. It does not arise of itself. It has abiding principles according to which the major means of production and distribution ought to be socialised if exploitation of the many by the few is to be prevented; if, that is to say, egalitarianism in the economy is to be protected.

What pushes the masses into the camp of socialism is, even more than the illusion that socialism will make them richer, the expectation that it will curb all those who are better than they themselves are.

The Welfare State is merely a method for transforming the market economy step by step into socialism.

Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power — power sufficient to interfere with property.