Leon Trotsky

The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.

Between his consciousness and events stood always that impenetrable medium – indifference.

…capitalism does live by crises and booms, just as a human being lives by inhaling and exhaling.

Not believing in force is the same as not believing in gravity.

If one cannot get along without a mirror, even in shaving oneself, how can one reconstruct oneself or one’s life, without seeing oneself in the mirror of literature?

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

I have not become the Kings First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

I was exceedingly delighted with the waltz, and also with the polka. These differ in name, but there the difference ceases

If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.

I didn’t find my friends; the good Lord gave them to me.

Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.

The studious class are their own victims: they are thin and pale, their feet are cold, their heads are hot, the night is without sleep, the day a fear of interruption –pallor, squalor, hunger, and egotism.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

We must hold a man amenable to reason for the choice of his daily craft or profession. It is not an excuse any longer for his deeds that they are the custom of his trade. What business has he with an evil trade?

It is better to be a young June-bug than an old bird of paradise.

Self-trust is the essence of heroism.

Sorrow makes us children again.

True, there are architects so called in this country, and I have heard of one at least possessed with the idea of making architectural ornaments have a core of truth, a necessity, and hence a beauty, as if it were a revelation to him. All very well perhaps from his point of view, but only a little better than the common dilettantism.

If I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior.