Leon Trotsky Quotes
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City of prose and fantasy, of capitalist automation, its streets a triumph of cubism, its moral philosophy that of the dollar. New York impressed me tremendously because, more than any other city, it is the fullest expression of our modern age.
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Insurrection is an art, and like all arts has its own laws.
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The Left Opposition declared that the new tempo of industrialization were above our forces, and that the liquidation of the kulaks as a class in the course of three years was a fantastic task, if one wishes to say so, we find ourselves this time "less radical" than the Stalinists.
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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.
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Revolutionary realism tries to draw the maximum advantage from every situation - that is what makes it revolutionary - but at the same time it does not permit us to set ourselves fantastic aims - that is what makes it realistic.
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Simultaneously the Left Opposition in the course of several years carried on a struggle against the Stalinists in favor of collectivization.
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The life of a revolutionary would be quite impossible without a certain amount of 'fatalism.'
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The theory of the permanent revolution, in contradiction to the theory of socialism in one country, was recognized by the entire Bolshevik party during the period from 1917 to 1923.
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Learning carries within itself certain dangers because out of necessity one has to learn from one's enemies.
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Is it possible to fulfill this task, is it possible to achieve the definite victory of Socialism in one country without the combined efforts of the proletarians of several advanced countries? No, it is impossible.
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From being a patriotic myth, the Russian people have become an awful reality.
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I wrote a study about this question, The Lessons of October, which served as a pretext for my elimination from the government.
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Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man.
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Tell me anyway--Maybe I can find the truth by comparing the lies.
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Socialist economy cannot reject the huge advantages of the world division of labor: on the contrary, it will carry it to the highest development. But in practise, it is not a question of the future socialist society, with an established internal equilibrium, but of the given technically and culturally backward country which in the interests of industrialisation and collectivization is forced to export as much as possible in order to import as much as possible.
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A program of "disarmament," while imperialist antagonisms survive, is the most pernicious of fictions. Even if it were realized by way of general agreement - an obviously fantastic assumption!- that would by no means prevent a new war. The imperialists do not make war because there are armaments; on the contrary, they forge arms when they need to fight.
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An ally has to be watched just like an enemy.
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Not believing in force is the same as not believing in gravity.
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Technique is noticed most markedly in the case of those who have not mastered it.
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If we close our eyes to the dark sides of the workers' State which we have helped to create, we shall never reach socialism.
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Our differences with [Joseph] Stalin are entirely of a strategical character.
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The fundamental flaw of vulgar thought lies in the fact that it wishes to content itself with motionless imprints of a reality which consists of eternal motion.
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...capitalism does live by crises and booms, just as a human being lives by inhaling and exhaling.
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He who slanders the victim aids the executioner.