Leon Trotsky

“Let us not forget that revolutions are accomplished through people, although they be nameless. Materialism does not ignore the feeling, thinking, and acting man, but explains him.”

“[Letter to his wife, Natalia Sedova]In addition to the happiness of being a fighter for the cause of socialism, fate gave me the happiness of being her husband. During the almost forty years of our life together she remained an inexhaustible source of love, magnanimity, and tenderness. She underwent great sufferings, especially in the last period of our lives. But I find some comfort in the fact that she also knew days of happiness.For forty-three years of my conscious life I have remained a revolutionist; for forty-two of them I have fought under the banner of Marxism. If I had to begin all over again I would of course try to avoid this or that mistake, but the main course of my life would remain unchanged. I shall die a proletarian revolutionist, a Marxist, a dialectical materialist, and, consequently, an irreconcilable atheist. My faith in the communist future of mankind is not less ardent, indeed it is firmer today, than it was in the days of my youth.Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.”

“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.”

“אל תהרגו אותו, יש לו סיפור לספר.”

“יכול להיות שאתם לא מעוניינים במלחמה, אבל המלחמה מעוניינת בכם.”

“כל אדם יגיב בדרכו כשדוקרים אותו בסיכה, אך רוב האנשים יגיבו בצורה דומה אם יצרבו אותם בברזל מלובן.”

“יהיו מה שיהיו נסיבות מותי, אני אמות עם אמונה בלתי־מעורערת בחזון הקומוניסטי. אמונה זו באדם ובעתידו נותנת לי אף עכשיו כוח התנגדות כפי שלא היה יכול להתקבל משום דת ... אני יכול לראות את רצועת הדשא הירוקה הבהירה תחת החומה ואת השמיים הכחולים הבתולים מעל החומה, ואור־שמש בכל כיוון. החיים יפים. בואו נאפשר לדורות העתיד לחטא אותם מכל רוע, דיכוי ואלימות, וליהנות מהם לחלוטין.”

“הסוציאליזם זקוק לדמוקרטיה כמו אוויר לנשימה.”

“המטרה מקדשת את האמצעים, כל עוד יש משהו שמקדש את המטרה.”

“יש לעקוב אחר בעל-ברית כמו אחרי אויב.”

“The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.”

“The basis of bureaucratic rule is the poverty of society in objects of consumption, with the resulting struggle of each against all. When there is enough goods in a store, the purchasers can come whenever they want to. When there is little goods, the purchasers are compelled to stand in line. When the lines are very long, it is necessary to appoint a policeman to keep order. Such is the starting point of the power of the Soviet bureaucracy. It "knows" who is to get something and who has to wait.”

“The dynamic of revolutionary events is directly determined by swift, intense, and passionate changes in the psychology of classes which have already formed themselves before the revolution.”

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

“Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.”

“England is nothing but the last ward of the European madhouse, and quite possibly it will prove to be the ward for particularly violent cases.”

“You may not be interested in strategy, but strategy is interested in you.”

“There are no absolute rules of conduct, either in peace or war. Everything depends on circumstances.”

“Revolutions are always verbose.”

“You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”