Leon Trotsky
Revolutionary
1879-10-26
Quotes by Leon Trotsky
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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.
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Similar (of course, far from identical) irritations in similar conditions call out similar reflexes; the more powerful the irritation, the sooner it overcomes personal peculiarities. To a tickle, people react differently, but to a red-hot iron, alike. As a steam-hammer converts a sphere and a cube alike into sheet metal, so under the blow of too great and inexorable events resistances are smashed and the boundaries of —individuality— lost.
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Fascism is a caricature of Jacobinism.
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As long as human labor power, and, consequently, life itself, remain articles of sale and purchase, of exploitation and robbery, the principle of the —sacredness of human life— remains a shameful lie, uttered with the object of keeping the oppressed slaves in their chains.
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You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.
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Everything is relative in this world, where change alone endures.
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The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.
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Fascism is a caricature of Jacobinism.
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Similar (of course, far from identical) irritations in similar conditions call out similar reflexes; the more powerful the irritation, the sooner it overcomes personal peculiarities. To a tickle, people react differently, but to a red-hot iron, alike. As a steam-hammer converts a sphere and a cube alike into sheet metal, so under the blow of too great and inexorable events resistances are smashed and the boundaries of —individuality— lost.
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Everything is relative in this world, where change alone endures.
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You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.
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The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.
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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.
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As long as human labor power, and, consequently, life itself, remain articles of sale and purchase, of exploitation and robbery, the principle of the —sacredness of human life— remains a shameful lie, uttered with the object of keeping the oppressed slaves in their chains.
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You may not be interested in strategy, but strategy is interested in you.
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Everyone has the right to be stupid on occasion, but Comrade Macdonald abuses the privilege.
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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.
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Technique is noticed most markedly in the case of those who have not mastered it.
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Events can neither be regarded as a series of adventures nor strung on the thread of a preconceived moral. They must obey their own laws.
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The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.
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