Leon Trotsky

The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.

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.

Everyone has the right to be stupid on occasion, but Comrade Macdonald abuses the privilege.

Workers – men and women – of all countries, place yourselves under the banner of the Fourth International. It is the banner of your approaching victory!

Insurrection is an art, and like all arts has its own laws.

If we had more time for discussion we should probably have made a great many more mistakes.

A healthy body is a guest chamber for the soul: a sick body is a prison.

The Athanasian Creed is to me light and intelligible reading in comparison with much that now passes for science.

The tallest trees are most in the power of the winds, and ambitious men of the blasts of fortune.

The soul of God is poured into the world through the thoughts of men.

There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus.

To be a citizen in a democracy, a human being must be given a healthy start.

I would advise you Sir, to study algebra, if you are not already an adept in it: your head would be less muddy, and you will leave off tormenting your neighbors about paper and packthread, while we all live together in a world that is bursting with sin and sorrow.

Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.

I’ve learned that from my husband, that sort of, you know, ability to not get too high or too low with changes and bumps in the road.

A Man in Business must put up many Affronts, if he loves his own Quiet.

The secret of being a bore… is to tell everything.

Who has not felt the beauty of a woman’s arm? The unspeakable suggestions of tenderness that lie in the dimpled elbow, and all the varied gently-lessening curves, down to the delicate wrist, with its tiniest, almost imperceptible nicks in the firm softness.

There is a time when a man distinguishes the idea of felicity from the idea of wealth; it is the beginning of wisdom.

We judge of man’s wisdom by his hope.

It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.