The quotations of

Leon Trotsky

Russian Marxist revolutionary

1879–1940

10 quotes, most often on Politics.

Learning carries within itself certain dangers because out of necessity one has to learn from one’s enemies.
Literature and Revolution (1924)
- Education
Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other.
The Revolution Betrayed (1936), p. 41
- Government
Stalinism and fascism, in spite of a deep difference in social foundations, are symmetrical phenomena. In many of their features they show a deadly similarity.
The Revolution Betrayed (1936), Ch. 11
- Politics
Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that happen to a man.
Trotsky’s Diary in Exile — 1935 (1958)
- Age
A means can be justified only by its end. But the end in its turn needs to be justified.
Their Morals and Ours (1938)
- Morality
Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.
Trotsky’s Testament (1940)
- Life & Death
No one yet has learned to drive a locomotive sitting in his study.
Terrorism and Communism (1920), Ch. 7, p. 101
- Experience
I do not measure the historical process by the yardstick of one’s personal fate.
My Life (1930), Ch. 45: The Planet without a Visa
- History
To make the individual sacred we must destroy the social order which crucifies him. And this problem can only be solved by blood and iron.
Terrorism and Communism (1920), Ch. 4: Terrorism
- Politics
In war, where both success and failure are repaid by death, hostile agents who penetrate into the rear are subject to execution. This is inhuman, but no one ever considered war a school of humanity.
Terrorism and Communism (1920), Ch. 4: Terrorism
- War & Peace

Most quoted

People A to Z

C. S. Lewis1898–1963151 quotes

Mark Twain1835–1910151 quotes

Benjamin Franklin1706–179098 quotes

Martin Luther King Jr.1929–196884 quotes

Albert Einstein1879–195595 quotes

Dave Barryborn 1947100 quotes