Quote

With all due respect to all philistines, the dictatorship of the proletariat does just consist in giving a hiding to the classes that were previously supreme, before forcing them to recognize the new order and to submit to it.

Leon Trotsky

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Giving
Hiding
Philistines
Dues
Proletariat
Supreme
Forcing
Recognize
Consist
Respect
Previously
Class
Dictatorship
Order
Submit
Doe
Classes

More quotes by Leon Trotsky

Image
Dialectical thought is related to vulgar thinking in the same way that a motion picture is related to a still photograph. The motion picture does not outlaw the still photograph but combines a series of them according to the laws of motion.
Leon Trotsky
Image
I wrote a study about this question, The Lessons of October, which served as a pretext for my elimination from the government.
Leon Trotsky
Image
Revolutions are always verbose.
Leon Trotsky
Image
Technique is noticed most markedly in the case of those who have not mastered it.
Leon Trotsky
Image
Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man.
Leon Trotsky
Image
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.
Leon Trotsky
Image
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
Image
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
Image
The Left Opposition declared that the new tempo of industrialization were above our forces, and that the liquidation of the kulaks as a class in the course of three years was a fantastic task, if one wishes to say so, we find ourselves this time less radical than the Stalinists.
Leon Trotsky
Image
The United States is not only the strongest, but also the most terrified country.
Leon Trotsky
Image
The Federated Republic of Europe-the United States of Europe-that is what must be. National autonomy no longer suffices. Economic evolution demands the abolition of national frontiers. If Europe is to remain split into national groups, then Imperialism will recommence its work. Only a Federated Republic of Europe can give peace to the world.
Leon Trotsky
Image
What shall we call an immediate possibility? In 1923 the situation in Germany was profoundly revolutionary, but what was lacking for a victorious revolution was a correct strategy.
Leon Trotsky
Image
The Soviet State does not need either illusions or camouflage. It can claim only that world authority which is confirmed by the facts.
Leon Trotsky
Image
In a serious struggle there is no worse cruelty than to be magnanimous at an inopportune time.
Leon Trotsky
Image
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
Image
City of prose and fantasy, of capitalist automation, its streets a triumph of cubism, its moral philosophy that of the dollar. New York impressed me tremendously because, more than any other city, it is the fullest expression of our modern age.
Leon Trotsky
Image
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
Image
Only in the Fall of 1924 did [Joseph] Stalin discover that it is especially Russia, as distinguished from other countries, which can by its own forces build up a socialist society.
Leon Trotsky
Image
The party that leans upon the workers but serves the bourgeoisie, in the period of the greatest sharpening of the class struggle, cannot but sense the smells wafted from the waiting grave.
Leon Trotsky
Image
The creative union of the conscious with the unconscious is what one usually calls 'inspiration.'
Leon Trotsky