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- Throughout the civilised world the teachings of Marx evoke the utmost hostility and hatred of all bourgeois science (both official and liberal), which regards Marxism as a kind of “pernicious sect”. And no other attitude is to be expected, for there can be no “impartial” social science in a society based on class struggle. In one way or another, all official and liberal science defends wage-slavery, whereas Marxism has declared relentless war on that slavery. To expect science to be impartial in a wage-slave society is as foolishly naïve as to expect impartiality from manufacturers on the question of whether workers’ wages ought not to be increased by decreasing the profits of capital. (The three sources and three component parts of Marxism)
- Don’t whine, comrades, we are bound to win, for we are right. (As cited by Stalin in this work [MIA link])
On bourgeois dictatorship
- To decide once every few years which members of the ruling class is to repress and crush the people through parliament – this is the real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism, not only in parliamentary-constitutional monarchies, but also in the most democratic republics. (The state and revolution: Abolition of parliamentarism)
- 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. (Letter to G. Myasnikov)
On Trotsky
- Trotsky has never yet held a firm opinion on any important question of Marxism. He always contrives to worm his way into the cracks of any given difference of opinion, and desert one side for the other. At the present moment he is in the company of the Bundists and the liquidators. And these gentlemen do not stand on ceremony where the Party is concerned. (The right of nations to self-determination: The 1903 Programme and its liquidators (1914), Collected Works, vol. 20, p. 448-449)
- Trotsky behaves like a despicable careerist and factionalist of the Ryazanov-and-co type. Either equality on the editorial board, subordination to the central committee and no one’s transfer to Paris except Trotsky’s (the scoundrel, he wants to ‘fix up’ the whole rascally crew of ‘Pravda’ at our expense!) – or a break with this swindler and an exposure of him in the CO. He pays lip-service to the Party and behaves worse than any other of the factionalists. (Letter to G. Zinoviev, 1909, Collected Works, vol. 34, p. 399-400)
- It is impossible to argue with Trotsky on the merits of the issue, because Trotsky holds no views whatever. We can and should argue with confirmed liquidators and otzovists, but it is no use arguing with a man whose game is to hide the errors of both these trends; in his case the thing to do is to expose him as a diplomat of the smallest calibre. (Trotsky's diplomacy and a certain party platform, Collected Works, vol. 17, p. 362)
- Needless to say, this explanation is highly flattering to Trotsky, to all five groups abroad, and to the liquidators. Trotsky is very fond of using, with the learned air of the expert, pompous and high-sounding phrases to explain historical phenomena in a way that is flattering to Trotsky. (Disruption of unity under cover of outcries for unity, Collected Works, vol. 20, pp. 333-334)
On the party
- A party is the vanguard of a class, and its duty is to lead the masses and not merely to reflect the average political level of the masses. (Statement to the Bolshevik Group at the Extraordinary All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Peasants' Deputies, Collected Works, vol. 26, p. 324)
Quotes about Lenin
Lenin walks around the world. Frontiers cannot bar him. Neither barracks nor barricades impede. Nor does barbed wire scar him. Lenin walks around the world. Black, brown, and white receive him. Language is no barrier. The strangest tongues believe him. Lenin walks around the world. The sun sets like a scar. Between the darkness and the dawn There rises a red star.
"Lenin" by Langston Hughes