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

Leon Trotsky

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Leon Trotsky
Age: 60 †
Born: 1879
Born: January 1
Died: 1940
Died: January 1
Autobiographer
Diplomat
Historian
Journalist
Military Personnel
Philosopher
Politician
Revolutionary
Writer
N. Trotsky
Lev Bronstein
Lev Davidovich Bronshtein
Lev Davidovich Bronstein
Leon Trotski
Means
Ends
Mean
Needs
Justified
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More quotes by Leon Trotsky

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In spite of the existence of the Soviet Union, however, the proletarian revolution during the past years has not recorded a victory in any other country.
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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.
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The theory of the permanent revolution, in contradiction to the theory of socialism in one country, was recognized by the entire Bolshevik party during the period from 1917 to 1923.
Leon Trotsky
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Fascism is a caricature of Jacobinism.
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There is no justice in bureaucracy for the individual, for bureaucracy caters only to itself. One cannot practice the same bureaucracy as one is fighting against.
Leon Trotsky
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The history of a revolution is for us first of all a history of the forcible entrance of the masses into the realm of rulership over their own destiny.
Leon Trotsky
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From being a patriotic myth, the Russian people have become an awful reality.
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Not believing in force is the same as not believing in gravity.
Leon Trotsky
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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.
Leon Trotsky
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Terror, as the demonstration of the will and strength of the working class, is historically justified, precisely because the proletariat was able thereby to break the political will of the intelligentsia, pacify the professional man of various categories and work, and gradually subordinate them to its own aims within the field of their specialties.
Leon Trotsky
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It is therefore not true that the mere existence of the Soviet Union is capable of assuring the victory of the revolution in other countries.
Leon Trotsky
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It is also false that the revolution ripens and comes to development only in the national soil.
Leon Trotsky
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The creative union of the conscious with the unconscious is what one usually calls 'inspiration.'
Leon Trotsky
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Revolutions are always verbose.
Leon Trotsky
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Insurrection is an art, and like all arts has its own laws.
Leon Trotsky
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Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other.
Leon Trotsky
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Technique is noticed most markedly in the case of those who have not mastered it.
Leon Trotsky
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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).
Leon Trotsky
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National self-sufficiency or autarchy is the ideal of [Adolf] Hitler, not of [Karl] Marx and [Vladimir] Lenin.
Leon Trotsky
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Where force is necessary, there it must be applied boldly, decisively and completely.
Leon Trotsky