Slight content warning: mention of the word “naked”
“To say: I ‘appreciate’ your political, approach, ‘but’ it is only a political one and we ‘also need an economic one’, is tantamount to saying: I ‘appreciate’ your point that in taking that particular step you are liable to break your neck, but you must also take into consideration that it is better to be clothed and well-fed than to go naked and hungry.” - Lenin, Once Again On The Trade Unions, The Current Situation and the Mistakes of Trotsky and Buhkarin (https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1921/jan/25.htm)
Not exactly by a Marxist, since Marxism didn’t exist yet, but I like this poem:
They hang the man and flog the woman
Who steal the goose from off the common
But let the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose.
Lots of great quotes here already.
“If you remove the English army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic your efforts would be in vain. England would still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs.” – James Connolly, Socialism and Nationalism
"Our theory is a theory of development, not a dogma to be memorized and repeated mechanically.”
- Engels, Letter to Florence Kelley-Wischnewetzky
Who is Florence? I have never heard of their name before (were they a detractor of Engels or something?).
Well, she was an US activist that dedicated their life to social reform. While in Europe, Kelley joined the Germany Social Democratic Party and translated many of the party’s important works. Maybe, this is where she got to meet Engels.
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/florence-kelley
Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle.
- V. I. Lenin
It really depends, for short but powerful quotes Marx is the king but for longer ones i really like this one by Engels, it makes me hopeful:
“The splitting up of society into a small class, immoderately rich, and a large class of wage-labourers devoid of all property, brings it about that this society smothers in its own superfluidity, while the great majority of its members are scarcely, or not at all, protected from extreme want. This condition becomes every day more absurd and more unnecessary. It must be gotten rid of; it can be gotten rid of. A new social order is possible, in which the class differences of today will have disappeared, and in which – perhaps after a short transition period, which, though somewhat deficient in other respects, will in any case be very useful morally – there will be the means of life, of the enjoyment of life, and of the development and activity of all bodily and mental faculties, through the systematic use and further development of the enormous productive powers of society, which exists with us even now, with equal obligation upon all to work.” – Engels, Introduction to Wage Labour and Capital.
As for Marx quotes, i like this one putting emphasis on the last punch:
“Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living.” - Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.
Also not Marxist, reactionary actually, but i wear this one with pride:
“With dialectics, the rabble gets on top.” - Friedich Nietzsche
“It is typical of a Liberal to speak of ‘Democracy’, but a Marxist never forgets to ask: “For what class?”.”
Oh who is it from?
Lenin in his “The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky”
Still need to read it, as i do with everything else lol, Im just slow to read. But this quote stood out to me when I first was venturing into Marxism.
Peace to you, if you’re willing to fight for it.
~Fred Hampton
“All over the world, wherever there are capitalists, freedom of the press means freedom to buy up newspapers, to buy writers, to bribe, buy and fake “public opinion” for the benefit of the bourgeoisie.” -Lenin
I really like this one because with just a little expansion you can see, that living in a dictatorship of capitalists, you only “know” what they want you to know unless you are actively trying to learn what they don’t want you to know.
If you can get a liberal to swallow this line and internalize it they will begin to question everything they “know,” especially the stuff they “know” about Communism.
“We have no compassion and we ask no compassion from you. When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for the terror” ~ K. Marx
I will always keep this quote in mind when sentimentality and morality surround me. They can murder our comrades, they can oppress our class, they can sabotage us; but when it is our turn, we will be fiercely authoritarian against the opposition, and any enemy of the proletariat will have no voice.
I can definitely see libservantives miscontextualizing that quote to imply that Marx supported terrorism but who cares what they think? They are the ones supporting the Israeli genocide while conjuring up a fake one in Xinjiang.
We savages were the original terrorists. We go by many names. Savage, guerilla, terrorist, extremist, etc. etc. It’s all just the euphemism treadmill. When one word becomes politically incorrect, they’ll call us something else. I absolutely do not apologise for the terror that my ancestors waged upon the colonisers.
based
I mean, I’m not gonna pretend the proles terrorizing their oppressors is the same as the vice versa. I HOPE the Bourgeoise piss themselves as they’re dragged out of their castles
It has an interesting history, that quote. I don’t have the time to look for it right now, but I remember looking up where it comes from before and (roughly from memory) it was in the context of Marx recently dealing with a publication getting shut down to repress him / other revolutionaries and that was part of his kind of retaliatory statement on what had happened. IIRC, it was also in the context of him talking about the kind of repression the exploiting classes do in general (not just shutting down newspapers).
Yeah, its from the final issue of the neue rheinische zeitung, originally printed in all red ink. The authorities spent the previous 9 months attacking the paper through the courts, attempting to deport and / or arrest many of the editors, including Marx and Engels. They won both cases, so in the end the government was like “the NRZ has started publishing evil antigovernment articles calling for revolution” and banned the paper outside the court process. Marx resented the excuses the government gave for the shut down, and the article basically points out that the paper has been calling for revolution from day 1
True political power comes from the end of a gun’s barrel. - Mao
You accuse us of wanting to do away with private property. That is precisely what we intend - Marx
It is difficult for me to imagine what “personal liberty” is enjoyed by an unemployed person, who goes about hungry, and cannot find employment.
Real liberty can exist only where exploitation has been abolished, where there is no oppression of some by others, where there is no unemployment and poverty, where a man is not haunted by the fear of being tomorrow deprived of work, of home and of bread. Only in such a society is real, and not paper, personal and every other liberty possible.
— Joseph Stalin
About the capitalist states, it doesn’t depend on you whether or not we exist. If you don’t like us, don’t accept our invitations, and don’t invite us to come to see you. Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!
Yeah, I know, it’s from Khrushchev. But it’s a banger and he wasn’t wrong tbf.
Atomic war is inevitable. It will destroy half of humanity: it is going to destroy immense human riches. It is very possible. The atomic war is going to provoke a true inferno on Earth. But it will not impede Communism.
Another banger, even if Posadas is kind of a meme (deserved for being a Trotskyist).
Decided to go with quotes I didn’t expect anyone else to post so as not to be monotonous. Plus, even revisionists can have crazy good lines.
" Unless you have investigated a problem, you will be deprived of the right to speak on it. Isn’t that too harsh? Not in the least. When you have not probed into a problem, into the present facts and its past history, and know nothing of its essentials, whatever you say about it will undoubtedly be nonsense. Talking nonsense solves no problems, as everyone knows, so why is it unjust to deprive you of the right to speak? Quite a few comrades always keep their eyes shut and talk nonsense, and for a Communist that is disgraceful. How can a Communist keep his eyes shut and talk nonsense?
It won’t do!
It won’t do!
You must investigate!
You must not talk nonsense!"
Mao Zedong
Much harder to adhere to than it sounds. We’re but humans still depending on cognitive shortcuts and mental crutches from ancient times. It wasn’t too long ago that I cautioned a comrade against defying these words and they did it anyway.
I was scared and thought you were criticizing a post or reply of mine haha (scared laughter). What was the context behind your comrade defying your advice?
It involved a subject matter that was poorly understood and illicits a lot of kneejerk reactions and ignorance similar to the DPRK. I’Il DM it to you. It’s a sensitive matter.
“the revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love” - che
I love this quote. I remember hearing it in the past, but could never remember who said it or the right wording. Now I know.
“You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” - Leon Trotsky
