When one pays a visit it is for the purpose of wasting other people’s time, not one’s own.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Communism to me is one-third practice and two-thirds explanation.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
We are persons of quality, I assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see and to be seen.
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English Dramatist, Poet, Actor
There is nothing in socialism that a little age or a little money will not cure.
—Will Durant (1885–1981) American Historian, Philosopher, Memoirist, Socialist
I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
A great social success is a pretty girl who plays her cards as carefully as if she were plain.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
Communism is like one big phone company.
—Lenny Bruce (1925–66) American Comedian, Writer, Social Critic, Satirist
Communism, my friend, is more than Marxism, just as Catholicism is more than the Roman Curia. There is a mystique as well as a politick. Catholics and Communists have committed great crimes, but at least they have not stood aside, like an established society, and been indifferent. I would rather have blood on my hands than water like Pilate.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Many people feel empty, a world that seemed so strong just collapsed. Forty years have been wasted on stupid strife for the sake of an unsuccessful experiment. The values gathered together have vanished, the strategies for survival have become ridiculous. And so forty years of our lives have become a story, a bad anecdote. But it may be possible to remember these adventures with a kind of irony.
—Gyorgy Konrad (1933–2019) Hungarian Novelist, Sociologist, Essayist
One strength of the communist system of the East is that it has some of the character of a religion and inspires the emotions of a religion.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
A common danger tends to concord. Communism is the exploitation of the strong by the weak. In Communism, inequality comes from placing mediocrity on a level with excellence.
—Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–65) French Social Philosopher, Journalist
We must conclude that it is not only a particular political ideology that has failed, but the idea that men and women could ever define themselves in terms that exclude their spiritual needs.
—Salman Rushdie (b.1947) Indian-born British Novelist
If Socialism can only be realized when the intellectual development of all the people permits it, then we shall not see Socialism for at least five hundred years.
—Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian Revolutionary Leader
Communism is the opiate of the intellectuals [with] no cure except as a guillotine might be called a cure for dandruff.
—Clare Boothe Luce (1903–87) American Playwright, Diplomat, Journalist, Diplomat, Elected Rep
Socialists think profits are a vice; I consider losses the real vice.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Man will become immeasurably stronger, wiser, and subtler; his body will become more harmonious, his movements more rhythmic, his voice more musical. The forms of life will become dynamically dramatic. The average human type will rise to the heights of an Aristotle, a Goethe, or a Marx. And above these heights, new peaks will rise.
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country.
—Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian Revolutionary Leader
Communism possesses a language which every people can understand.—Its elements are hunger, envy, and death.
—Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German Poet, Writer
You’ll see certain Pythagorean whose belief in communism of property goes to such lengths that they pick up anything lying about unguarded, and make off with it without a qualm of conscience as if it had come to them by law.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
Communism is a cow of many; well milked and badly fed.
—Spanish Proverb
To make men Socialists is nothing, but to make Socialism human is a great thing.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Marxism is like a classical building that followed the Renaissance; beautiful in its way, but incapable of growth.
—Harold Macmillan (1894–1986) British Head of State
All I know is I’m not a Marxist.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
For us in Russia communism is a dead dog. For many people in the West, it is still a living lion.
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian Dissident Novelist
Many people consider the things government does for them to be social progress, but they consider the things government does for others as socialism.
—Earl Warren (1891–1974) American Judge, Politician
I have no concern with any economic criticisms of the communist system; I cannot inquire into whether the abolition of private property is expedient or advantageous. But I am able to recognize that the psychological premises on which the system is based are an untenable illusion. In abolishing private property we deprive the human love of aggression of one of its instruments… but we have in no way altered the differences in power and influence which are misused by aggressiveness.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
Communism, like any other revealed religion, is largely made up of prophecies.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
Our power does not know liberty or justice. It is established on the destruction of the individual will.
—Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian Revolutionary Leader
Communists are people who fancied that they had an unhappy childhood.
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American Writer
A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician