This socialism will develop in all its phases until it reaches its own extremes and absurdities. Then once again a cry of denial will break from the titanic chest of the revolutionary minority and again a mortal struggle will begin, in which socialism will play the role of contemporary conservatism and will be overwhelmed in the subsequent revolution, as yet unknown to us.
—Alexander Herzen (1812–70) Russian Revolutionary, Writer
Communists are people who fancied that they had an unhappy childhood.
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American Writer
I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
The only hope of socialism resides in those who have already brought about in themselves, as far as is possible in the society of today, that union between manual and intellectual labor which characterizes the society we are aiming at.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Social advance depends as much upon the process through which it is secured as upon the result itself.
—Jane Addams (1860–1935) American Social Reformer, Feminist
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
The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
Communism is the corruption of a dream of justice.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
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
Experience has taught me that the shallowest of communist platitudes contains more of a hierarchy of meaning than contemporary bourgeois profundity.
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German Literary and Marxist Critic
Socialism is like a dream. Sooner or later you wake up to reality.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
I am a Marxist… of the Groucho tendency.
—Unknown
Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
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, 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
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
Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy.
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chinese Statesman
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
Communists have always played an active role in the fight by colonial countries for their freedom, because the short-term objects of Communism would always correspond with the long-term objects of freedom movements.
—Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) South African Political leader
By concentrating on what is good in people, by appealing to their idealism and their sense of justice, and by asking them to put their faith in the future, socialists put themselves at a severe disadvantage.
—Ian McEwan British Novelist, Short-Story Writer
All I know is I’m not a Marxist.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
Socialism must come down from the brain and reach the heart.
—Jules Renard (1864–1910) French Writer, Diarist
To make men Socialists is nothing, but to make Socialism human is a great thing.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
People nowadays like to be together not in the old-fashioned way of, say, mingling on the piazza of an Italian Renaissance city, but, instead, huddled together in traffic jams, bus queues, on escalators and so on. It’s a new kind of togetherness which may seem totally alien, but it’s the togetherness of modern technology.
—J. G. Ballard (1930–2009) English Novelist, Short Story Writer
A specter is haunting Europe—the specter of communism.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
In the end we beat them with Levi 501 jeans. Seventy-two years of Communist indoctrination and propaganda was drowned out by a three-ounce Sony Walkman. A huge totalitarian system has been brought to its knees because nobody wants to wear Bulgarian shoes. Now they’re lunch, and we’re number one on the planet.
—P. J. O’Rourke (1947–2022) American Journalist, Political Satirist
Every reasonable human being should be a moderate Socialist.
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German Novelist, Short Story Writer, Social Critic, Philanthropist, Essayist
It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice. I consider the real vice is making losses.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
The substance of the eminent Socialist gentlemen’s speech is that making a profit is a sin. It is my belief that the real sin is taking a loss!
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Leave a Reply