“Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.”

Everybody has a right to be stupid, but some people abuse the privilege.

In war I would deal with the Devil and his grandmother

The Red Army and Navy and the whole Soviet people must fight for every inch of Soviet soil, fight to the last drop of blood for our towns and villages…onward, to victory!

A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron.

Nowadays wars are not declared. They simply start.

If any foreign minister begins to defend to the death a ‘peace conference,’ you can be sure his government has already placed its orders for new battleships and airplanes.

Die, but do not retreat.

Ah, these diplomats! What chatterboxes! There’s only one way to shut them up – cut them down with machine guns. Bulganin, go and get me one!

Artillery is the god of war.

We do not want a single foot of foreign territory; but of our territory we shall not surrender a single inch to anyone.

Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army can reach.

To choose one’s victims, to prepare one’s plan minutely, to slake an implacable vengeance, and then to go to bed… There is nothing sweeter in the world.

Music’s a good thing, it calms the beast in the man.

You cannot make a revolution with silk gloves.

We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us.

The leaders come and go, but the people remain. Only the people are immortal.

My dad raised me with some good advice: ‘Always tell the truth. Always shoot from the hip. You might not have many friends, but you’ll never have enemies, because people will always know where you’re coming from.’

Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the Beloved.

We make our money out of our friends. Our enemies will not do business with us.

The main enemy of the open society, I believe, is no longer the communist but the capitalist threat.

How many are the pains of those who hunger for revenge! They gnaw away at themselves constantly, and they have killed themselves even before they kill their enemies.

We need a common enemy to unite us.

Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.

When my enemies stop hissing, I shall know I’m slipping.