Leon Trotsky quotes

Leon Trotsky was a Russian revolutionary, Marxist theorist, and one of the leaders of the October Revolution. A key figure in the Russian Civil War, he played a major role in founding and commanding the Red Army. He became a prominent critic of Stalin and was ultimately assassinated while in exile. Here are 133 of his quotes:

Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.

Leon Trotsky

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

Leon Trotsky

The historic ascent of humanity, taken as a whole, may be summarized as a succession of victories of consciousness over blind forces - in nature, in society, in man himself.

Leon Trotsky

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.

Leon Trotsky

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.

Leon Trotsky

In a serious struggle there is no worse cruelty than to be magnanimous at an inopportune time.

Leon Trotsky

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.

Leon Trotsky

Learning carries within itself certain dangers because out of necessity one has to learn from one's enemies.

Leon Trotsky

You may not be interested in strategy, but strategy is interested in you.

Leon Trotsky

Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other.

Leon Trotsky

A means can be justified only by its end. But the end in its turn needs to be justified.

Leon Trotsky

The struggle against war and its social source, capitalism, presupposes direct, active, unequivocal support to the oppressed colonial peoples in their struggles and wars against imperialism. A 'neutral' position is tantamount to support of imperialism.

Leon Trotsky

As long as I breathe I hope. As long as I breathe I shall fight for the future, that radiant future, in which man, strong and beautiful, will become master of the drifting stream of his history and will direct it towards the boundless horizons of beauty, joy and happiness!

Leon Trotsky

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.

Leon Trotsky

Abusive language and swearing are a legacy of slavery, humiliation, and disrespect for human dignity, one's own and that of other people.

Leon Trotsky

A sledgehammer breaks glass but forges steel.

Leon Trotsky

Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.

Leon Trotsky

An ally has to be watched just like an enemy.

Leon Trotsky

In Stalin each [Soviet bureaucrat] easily finds himself. But Stalin also finds in each one a small part of his own spirit. Stalin is the personification of the bureaucracy. That is the substance of his political personality.

Leon Trotsky

Root out the counterrevolutionaries without mercy, lock up suspicious characters in concentration camps... Shirkers will be shot, regardless of past service.

Leon Trotsky

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

Leon Trotsky

The permanent revolution, in the sense which Marx attached to this concept, means a revolution which makes no compromise with any single form of class rule, which does not stop at the democratic stage, which goes over to socialist measures and to war against reaction from without that is, a revolution whose every successive stage is rooted in the preceding one and which can end only in complete liquidation.

Leon Trotsky