If we had more time for discussion we should probably have made a great many more mistakes.
LEON TROTSKYIn 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 The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat.
More Leon Trotsky Quotes
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Is it possible to fulfill this task, is it possible to achieve the definite victory of Socialism in one country without the combined efforts of the proletarians of several advanced countries? No, it is impossible.
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Revolutions are always verbose.
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The main task of Socialism – the organization of Socialist production – remains still in the future.
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Religions are illogical primitive ignorance. There is nothing as ridiculous and tragic as a religious government.
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The pillars of Hercules of the United States are vulgarity and stupidity.
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The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.
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In a serious struggle there is no worse cruelty than to be magnanimous at an inopportune time.
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The revolution has its own laws: in the period of its culmination it pushes the most highly developed, determined and far-seeing stratum of the revolutionary class to the most advanced positions.
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If we close our eyes to the dark sides of the workers’ State which we have helped to create, we shall never reach socialism.
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The dictatorship of the Communist Party is maintained by recourse to every form of violence.
LEON TROTSKY -
When one runs with the wolves, one must howl with the pack.
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The usages and methods of warfare are thus determined by changing circumstances and, therefore, they themselves can in nowise be eternal.
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The Soviet Union needs thinking and critical friends, such as are capable not only of singing hymns in the hours of success, but of not shrinking in the hour of defeat and danger.
LEON TROTSKY -
Our differences with [Joseph] Stalin are entirely of a strategical character.
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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