Leon Trotsky

The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.

Fascism is nothing but capitalist reaction.

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.

The dynamic of revolutionary events is directly determined by swift, intense, and passionate changes in the psychology of classes which have already formed themselves before the revolution.

Our planet is being turned into a filthy and evil-smelling imperialist barrack.

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.

I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I can find them, but I seldom use them.

Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.

The way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.

We are happier in many ways when we are old than when we were young. The young sow wild oats. The old grow sage.

The more you know, the less you need.

I never could tell a lie that anybody would doubt, nor a truth that anybody would believe.

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

Sense shines with a double luster when it is set in humility. An able yet humble man is a jewel worth a kingdom.

Nothing is beneath you if it is in the direction of your life.

Obscurity and competence: That is the life that is worth living.

I believe in one thing only, the power of the human will

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.

The Athanasian Creed is to me light and intelligible reading in comparison with much that now passes for science.

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

Youth enters the world with very happy prejudices in her own favor. She imagines herself not only certain of accomplishing every adventure, but of obtaining those rewards which the accomplishment may deserve. She is not easily persuaded to believe that the force of merit can be resisted by obstinacy and avarice, or its luster darkened by envy and malignity.