Victor Serge died in exile and obscurity, apparently no more than a splinter of a splinter in the Marxist movement. But with the passage of the years, he looms up as one of the great moral figures of our time, an artist of such integrity and a revolutionary of such purity as to overshadow those who achieved fame and power. His failure was his success. I know of no participant in Russia's revolution and Spain's agonies who more deserves the attention of our concerned youth.

I. F. Stone

Categorized in : Integrity Artist Russia

The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you’re going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins.

I. F. Stone

fighting winning believe

All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.

I. F. Stone

freedom running life

If you expect to see the final results of your work, you simply have not asked a big enough question.

I. F. Stone

finals results enough

All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out.

I. F. Stone

government-lies country lying

If you want to know about governments, all you need to know is two words: Governments lie.

I. F. Stone

government-lies two lying

There must be renewed recognition that societies are kept stable and healthy by reform, not by thought police; this means there must be free play for so-called subversive ideas - every idea subverts the old to make way for the new. To shut off subversion is to shut off peaceful progress and to invite revolution and war.

I. F. Stone

play war mean

The only social justice movements worth fighting for are the struggles for justice where you lose, you lose, you lose- until you win.

I. F. Stone

fighting struggle winning

Rich people march on Washington every day.

I. F. Stone

march-on-washington rich people

You've really got to wear a chastity belt in Washington to preserve your journalistic virginity. Once the secretary of state invites you to lunch

I. F. Stone

belts lunch opinion

Every time we are confronted with a new revolution we take to the opium pipes of our own propaganda.

I. F. Stone

pipe propaganda revolution

If God, as some now say, is dead, He no doubt died of trying to find an equitable solution to the Arab-Jewish problem.

I. F. Stone

idaho doubt trying

When war comes, reason is regarded as treason.

I. F. Stone

treason reason war

If you live long enough, you get accused of things you never did and praised for virtues you never had.

I. F. Stone

virtue memories long

History is a tragedy, not a morality tale.

I. F. Stone

tales morality tragedy

The fault I find with most American newspapers is not the absence of dissent. it is the absence of news. With a dozen or so honorable exceptions, most American newspapers carry very little news. Their main concern is advertising.

I. F. Stone

dozen news liberty

The difference between burlesque and the newspapers is that the former never pretended to be performing a public service by exposure.

I. F. Stone

burlesque public-service differences

Every emancipation has in it the seeds of a new slavery, and every truth easily becomes a lie.

I. F. Stone

slavery freedom lying

The arms race is based on an optimistic view of technology and a pessimistic view of man. It assumes there is no limit to the ingenuity of science and no limit to the deviltry of human beings.

I. F. Stone

optimistic technology men

Every man is his own Pygmalion, and spends his life fashioning himself. And in fashioning himself, for good or ill, he fashions the human race and its future.

I. F. Stone

fashion race men

I sought in political reporting what Galsworthy in another context had called "the significant trifle" - the bit of dialogue, the overlooked fact, the buried observation which illuminated the realities of the situation.

I. F. Stone

political reality facts