Leon Trotsky Quotes
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As a general rule, man strives to avoid labor. Love for work is not at all an inborn characteristic: it is created by economic pressure and social education. One may even say that man is a fairly lazy animal. It is on this quality, in reality, that is founded to a considerable extent all human progress; because if man did not strive to expend his energy economically, did not seek to receive the largest possible quantity of products in return for a small quantity of energy, there would have been no technical development or social culture.
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Our planet is being turned into a filthy and evil-smelling imperialist barrack.
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Workers – men and women – of all countries, place yourselves under the banner of the Fourth International. It is the banner of your approaching victory!
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The usages and methods of warfare are thus determined by changing circumstances and, therefore, they themselves can in nowise be eternal.
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National self-sufficiency or "autarchy" is the ideal of [Adolf] Hitler, not of [Karl] Marx and [Vladimir] Lenin.
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Fascism is nothing but capitalist reaction...
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Under all conditions, well-organized violence seems to him the shortest distance between two points.
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Where force is necessary, there it must be applied boldly, decisively and completely. But one must know the limitations of force; one must know when to blend force with a maneuver, a blow with an agreement.
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It is also false that the revolution ripens and comes to development only in the national soil.
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The party that leans upon the workers but serves the bourgeoisie, in the period of the greatest sharpening of the class struggle, cannot but sense the smells wafted from the waiting grave.
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Look back at history - those who guided the revolution in the time of its culmination never kept their leading positions long after the turning point.
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In 1925 - 27 the revolution in China was destroyed by the false revolutionary strategy of the Stalinist faction. To this last question I consecrate my book, Problems of the Chinese Revolution (issued by the Pioneer Publishers, New York 1932).
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If we had more time for discussion we should probably have made a great many more mistakes.
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The people will have the right to elect their representatives from a list of candidates [who have been approved by the Party].
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The main task of Socialism - the organization of Socialist production - remains still in the future.
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There are no absolute rules of conduct, either in peace or war. Everything depends on circumstances.
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Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression, and violence, and enjoy it to the full.