Vladimir Lenin Quotes
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You cannot do anything without rousing the masses to action.
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There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel.
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Pacifism, the preaching of peace in the abstract, is one of the means of duping the working class.
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In the last analysis, productivity of labour is the most important, the principal thing for the victory of the new social system.
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Capitalism has triumphed all over the world, but this triumph is only the prelude to the triumph of labour over capital.
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We are not utopians, we do not “dream” of dispensing at once with all administration, with all subordination. These anarchist dreams, based upon incomprehension of the tasks of the proletarian dictatorship, are totally alien to Marxism, and, as a matter of fact, serve only to postpone the socialist revolution until people are different. No, we want the socialist revolution with people as they are now, with people who cannot dispense with subordination, control, and "foremen and accountants".
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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.
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He who does not work shall not eat
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You can become a Communist only when you enrich your mind with a knowledge of all the treasures created by mankind.
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A party is the vanguard of a class, and its duty is to lead the masses and not merely to reflect the average political level of the masses.
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It is true that liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully rationed.
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Fascism is capitalism in decay.
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The goal of socialism is communism.
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You cannot do anything without rousing the masses to action. A plenary meeting of the Soviet must be called to decide on mass searches in Petrograd and the goods stations. To carry out these searches, each factory and company must form contingents, not on a voluntary basis: it must be the duty of everyone to take part in these searches under the threat of being deprived of his bread card. We can't expect to get anywhere unless we resort to terrorism: speculators must be shot on the spot. Moreover, bandits must be dealt with just as resolutely: they must be shot on the spot.
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The nearer we come to the full military suppression of the bourgeoisie, the more dangerous becomes to us the high flood of petty-bourgeois Anarchism. And the struggle against these elements cannot be waged with propaganda and agitation alone. ... The struggle must also be waged by applying force and compulsion.
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To accept anything on trust, to preclude critical application and development, is a grievous sin.
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For the first time the peasant has seen real freedom - freedom to eat his bread, freedom from starvation.
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Democracy is a form of the state, it represents, on the one hand, the organized, systematic use of force against persons; but, on the other hand, it signifies the formal recognition of equality of citizens, the equal right of all to determine the structure of, and to administer, the state.
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The war is relentless: it puts the alternative in a ruthless relief: either to perish, or to catch up with the advanced countries and outdistance them, too, in economic matters.
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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.
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The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves.
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It is necessary to be able to withstand all this, to agree to any and every sacrifice, and even - if need be - to resort to all sorts of stratagems, manoeuvres and illegal methods, to evasion and subterfuges in order to penetrate the trade unions, to remain in them, and to carry on Communist work in them at all costs.
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Any army which does not train to use all the weapons, all the means and methods of warfare that the enemy possesses, or may possess, is behaving in an unwise or even criminal manner. This applies to politics even more than it does to the art of war.
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Hang (hang without fail, so the people see) no fewer than one hundred known kulaks, rich men, bloodsuckers.