Leon Trotsky

Learning carries within itself certain dangers because out of necessity one has to learn from one’s enemies.

The 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.

You may not be interested in strategy, but strategy is interested in you.

Revolutions are always verbose.

The historic ascent of humanity, taken as a whole, may be summarized as a succession of victories of consciousness over blind forces – in nature, in society, in man himself.

Against my protests a mausoleum was built on the Red Square, a monument unbecoming and offensive to the revolutionary consciousness.

I must first know myself, as the Delphian inscription says; to be curious about that which is not my concern, while I am still in ignorance of my own self, would be ridiculous. And therefore I bid farewell to all this; the common opinion is enough for me. For, as I was saying, I want to know not about this, but about myself: am I a monster more complicated and swollen with passion than the serpent Typho, or a creature of a gentler and simpler sort, to whom Nature has given a diviner and lowlier destiny?

Play the game for more than you can afford to lose… only then will you learn the game.

It’s not burn baby burn, but learn, baby, learn, so that you can earn, baby, earn.

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.

Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.

Ideas must work through the brains and the arms of good and brave men, or they are no better than dreams.

As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.

Seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow. [Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.Lat.]

When one has tasted it Watermelon he knows what the angels eat.

To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.

Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever.

Let us my friends snatch our opportunity from the passing day.

At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable.