Home > Author > Leon Trotsky
41 " 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. "
― Leon Trotsky
42 " Abusive language and swearing are a legacy of slavery, humiliation, and disrespect for human dignity, one’s own and that of other people. "
43 " Old age is the most unexpected of all things that can happen to a man. "
44 " The United States is not only the strongest, but also the most terrified country. "
45 " Our planet is being turned into a filthy and evil-smelling imperialist barrack. "
46 " Technique is noticed most markedly in the case of those who have not mastered it. "
47 " 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. "
― Leon Trotsky , The Revolution Betrayed
48 " If one cannot get along without a mirror, even in shaving oneself, how can one reconstruct oneself or one's life, without seeing oneself in the "mirror" of literature? "
49 " Let a man find himself, in distinction from others, on top of two wheels with a chain - at least in a poor country like Russia - and his vanity begins to swell out like his tires. In America it takes an automobile to produce this effect. "
50 " Lenin refused to recognise moral norms established by slave-owners for their slaves and never observed by the slave-owners themselves; he called upon the Proletariat to extend the class struggle into the moral sphere too. Who fawns before the precepts established by the enemy will never vanquish that enemy! "
51 " Against my protests a mausoleum was built on the Red Square, a monument unbecoming and offensive to the revolutionary consciousness. "
52 " A revolution is always distinguished by impoliteness, probably because the ruling classes did not take the trouble in good season to teach the people fine manners. "
― Leon Trotsky , History of the Russian Revolution
53 " It is unquestionably true that the need for art is not created by economic conditions. But neither is the need for food created by economics. On the contrary, the need for food and warmth creates economics. "
― Leon Trotsky , Literature and Revolution
54 " إننا نستطيع بالتالي أن نتصفح تاريخ الكومونة كله , صفحة صفحة ، و سوف نجد فيه درس وحيد : قيادة حزبية قوية هي المطلوبة . فأكثر من أي بروليتاريا أخري بذلت الفرنسية تضحيات من أجل الثورة ، و لكن أيضا كانت أكثر من كل الآخرين تعرضت للانخداع . ففي كثير من المرات بهرتها البرجوازية بجميع ألوان الجمهورية ، الراديكالية ، الاشتراكية ، بالرغم من أنها دائما توثق أغلال الرأسمالية عليها . "
― Leon Trotsky , Lessons of the Paris Commune
55 " The bourgeoisie...by its imperialist methods of appropriation is destroying the economic structure of the world and human culture generally. Nevertheless, the historical persistence of the bourgeoisie is colossal. It holds power, and does not wish to abandon it...The red terror is a weapon utilised against a class, doomed to destruction which does not wish to perish. "
56 " Between his consciousness and events stood always that impenetrable medium — indifference. "
57 " Without a guiding organization, the energy of the masses would dissipate like steam not enclosed in a piston box. But nevertheless what moves things is not the piston or the box, but the steam. "
58 " 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 , Their Morals and Ours: The Class Foundations of Moral Practice
59 " With all due respect to all philistines, the dictatorship of the proletariat does just consist in "giving a hiding" to the classes that were previously supreme, before forcing them to recognize the new order and to submit to it. "
― Leon Trotsky , Terrorism and Communism: A Reply to Karl Kautsky
60 " fascism comes only when the working class shows complete incapacity to take into its own hands the fate of society. "
― Leon Trotsky , Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It