Collected Meditations
Showing 25 quotesThe 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.— Leon Trotsky
England is nothing but the last ward of the European madhouse, and quite possibly it will prove to be the ward for particularly violent cases.— Leon Trotsky
If we had more time for discussion we should probably have made a great many more mistakes.— Leon Trotsky
In a serious struggle there is no worse cruelty than to be magnanimous at an inopportune time.— Leon Trotsky
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.— Leon Trotsky
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
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
The masses go into a revolution not with a prepared plan of social reconstruction, but with a sharp feeling that they cannot endure the old regime. Only the guiding layers of a class have a political program, and even this still requires the test of events and the approval of the masses.— 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
Everyone has the right to be stupid on occasion, but Comrade Macdonald abuses the privilege.— Leon Trotsky