The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end. Leon Trotsky More Quotes by Leon Trotsky More Quotes From Leon Trotsky Root out the counterrevolutionaries without mercy, lock up suspicious characters in concentration camps... Shirkers will be shot, regardless of past service. Leon Trotsky rootscharacterpast In a serious struggle there is no worse cruelty than to be magnanimous at an inopportune time. Leon Trotsky crueltyseriousstruggle He who slanders the victim aids the executioner. Leon Trotsky executionersaidsvictim Fascism is nothing but capitalist reaction... Leon Trotsky capitalistreactionsfascism Abusive language and swearing are a legacy of slavery, humiliation, and disrespect for human dignity, one’s own and that of other people. Leon Trotsky disrespectlegacypeople Learning carries within itself certain dangers because out of necessity one has to learn from one's enemies. Leon Trotsky revolutionaryeducationenemy When one runs with the wolves, one must howl with the pack. Leon Trotsky packshowlrunning The United States is not only the strongest, but also the most terrified country. Leon Trotsky strongestunited-statescountry Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other. Leon Trotsky social-harmonyharmonysocial History has different yardsticks for the cruelty of the Northerners and the cruelty of the Southerners in the Civil War. A slave-owner who through cunning and violence shackles a slave in chains, and a slave who through cunning or violence breaks the chains – let not the contemptible eunuchs tell us that they are equals before a court of morality! Leon Trotsky slave-ownersdifferentwar Workers – men and women – of all countries, place yourselves under the banner of the Fourth International. It is the banner of your approaching victory! Leon Trotsky victorymencountry The pillars of Hercules of the United States are vulgarity and stupidity. Leon Trotsky pillarsunited-statesstupidity The bourgeoisie, which far surpasses the proletariat in the completeness and irreconcilibility of its class consciousness, is vitally interested in imposing its moral philosophy upon the exploited masses. It is exactly for this purpose that the concrete norms of the bourgeois catechism are concealed under moral abstractions...The appeal to abstract norms is not a disinterested philosophic mistake but a necessary element in the mechanics of class deception. Leon Trotsky mistakeclassphilosophy Not believing in force is the same as not believing in gravity. Leon Trotsky gravityforcebelieve Only when the kulak refused to deliver grain to the State did [Joseph] Stalin, under the pressure of the Left Opposition, accomplish a sharp turn. Being the empiricist that he is, he moved, to the opposite extreme, and set as a task for two or three years the collectivization of all the peasantry, the liquidation of the kulaks as a class, and the compression of the Five Year Plan into four years. Leon Trotsky oppositesclassyears Where force is necessary, there it must be applied boldly, decisively and completely. Leon Trotsky forceagreement Everything is relative in this world, where change alone endures. Everything is better than some things and worse than others. Which you choose to compare your experiences and situation with determines whether you will be happy and grateful or sad and jealous. Leon Trotsky gratitudejealousgrateful Revolutions are always verbose. Leon Trotsky revolutionpoliticsinspirational Ideas that enter the mind under fire remain there securely and for ever. Leon Trotsky firemindideas Only the defeat of the proletariat in Germany in 1923 gave the decisive push to the creation of Stalin's theory of national socialism: the downward curve of the revolution gave rise to Stalinism, not to the theory of the permanent revolution, which was first formulated by me in 1905. This theory is not bound to a definite calendar of revolutionary events; it only reveals the world-wide interdependence of the revolutionary process. Leon Trotsky curvesrevolutionfirsts
