Leon Trotsky

Let us not forget that revolutions are accomplished through people, although they be nameless. Materialism does not ignore the feeling, thinking, and acting man, but explains him.

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

There is a limit to the application of democratic methods. You can inquire of all the passengers as to what type of car they like to ride in, but it is impossible to question them as to whether to apply the brakes when the train is at full speed and accident threatens.

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

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.

In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat.

Our impartiality is kept for abstract merit and demerit, which none of us ever saw.

It is a happy talent to know how to play.

Be ever on your guard what you say of anybody and to whom.

It is always from a minority acting in ways different from what the majority would prescribe that the majority in the end learns to do better.

Trust yourself. You’ve survived a lot, and you’ll survive whatever is coming.

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

Slanderers do not hurt me because they do not hit me.

Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Jealousy is never satisfied with anything short of an omniscience that would detect the subtlest fold of the heart.

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.

Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.

What is the most rigorous law of our being? Growth. No smallest atom of our moral, mental, or physical structure can stand still a year. It grows – it must grow; nothing can prevent it.

Wherever there is power there is age.