Leon Trotsky Quotes

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

Permanence in politics is a very rare thing.

Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man.

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.

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

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.

Art, it is said, has no enemy except ignorance.

The future is, by definition, unknown. But we look forward to it as a time when we will be stronger and our burdens lighter.

In a battle, it is not he who sounds the loudest bugle call who is bravest, but he who stands up when all others have fallen.

Power is never given willingly by the powerful; it must be taken.

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

The art of politics consists in knowing precisely when it is necessary to hit an opponent slightly below the belt.

The end of the old is not always the beginning of the new. For the seeds of the future often lie dormant in the present.

Leon Trotsky Quotes part 2

Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.

The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.

Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it.

A lie told often enough becomes the truth.

The oppressed are allowed once every few years to choose their oppressors.

The first duty of a revolutionist is to be educated.

Democracy means nothing without socialism, and socialism means nothing without democracy.

Everything is relative in this world, where change alone endures.

There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.

Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.

One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.

War is the locomotive of history.

No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.

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

History will not forgive us if we do not take everything possible in the current situation.

It is with profound regret that I pay my tribute to Comrade Lenin, to his life and work, his character and his activities as a revolutionary leader.

The strength of the oppressor lies in the secrecy, his strength in the light.

Revolutionary optimism and hard work can accomplish anything.

The revolution is something that is almost natural to us revolutionists.

The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Politics is the struggle for power; and power, when it is seized, is quite properly.

Politics means striving to share in the commission of murder, and being responsible for murder.

The struggle of the Latin-American peoples is our struggle.

I can save myself and that is the ultimate success. It is by saving myself that I become a historian.

Only a dictatorship, a single Central Committee – it doesn’t matter what you call it – can effectively control the army.

Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.

Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

To be an artist means never to avert one’s eyes.

Everything has two sides — the brighter and the dark. We see the brighter, but the dark is always there, coming up in dreams.

Above all, keep your courage in your heart.

No matter how wrong a plan is, if it is carried out with confidence and audacity, it may turn out well in the end.

Everyone must choose. Either you are with us, or you are with the enemy. There is no in-between.