“It is necessary – secretly and urgently to prepare the terror.”

Learning is never done without errors and defeat.

Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.

You can become a Communist only when you enrich your mind with a knowledge of all the treasures created by mankind.

The press should be not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, but also a collective organizer of the masses.

No Marxist can deny that the interests of socialism are higher than the interests of the right of nations to self-determination.

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

Atheism is a natural and inseparable part of Marxism, of the theory and practice of scientific socialism. Our program necessarily includes the propaganda of atheism.

It would be the greatest mistake, certainly, to think that concessions mean peace. Nothing of the kind. Concessions are nothing but a new form of war.

The soundest strategy in war is to postpone operations until the moral disintegration of the enemy renders the delivery of the mortal blow both possible and easy.

Give me your four year olds, and in a generation I will build a socialist state.

We can and must write in a language which sows among the masses hate, revulsion, and scorn toward those who disagree with us.

Autocracy cannot do without its twin agents: a hangman and a priest, the first to suppress popular resistance by force, the second to sweeten and embellish the lot of the oppressed with empty promises of a heavenly kingdom.

The bourgeoisie is many times stronger than we. To give it the weapon of freedom of the press is to ease the enemy’s cause, to help the class enemy. We do not desire to end in suicide, so we will not do this.

The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency.

Only an armed people can be the real bulwark of popular liberty.

Atheism is the natural and inseparable part of Communism.

I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, and I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, and in short, I was afraid.

We crave and fear becoming truly ourselves.

Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason toward my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

I don’t fear death because I don’t fear anything I don’t understand. When I start to think about it, I order a massage and it goes away.

Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.

Love is a thing that is full of cares and fears.

Something did happen to me somewhere that robbed me of confidence and courage and left me with a fear of discovery and change and a positive dread of everything unknown that may occur.

People have obsessions and fears and passions which they don’t admit to. I think every character is interesting and has extremes. It’s the novelist privilege to see how odd everyone is.