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
Communism is like one big phone company.
—Lenny Bruce (1925–66) American Comedian, Writer, Social Critic, Satirist
Socialism must come down from the brain and reach the heart.
—Jules Renard (1864–1910) French Writer, Diarist
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
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 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
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
Communism is inequality, but not as property is. Property is exploitation of the weak by the strong. Communism is exploitation of the strong by the weak.
—Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–65) French Politician, Philosopher, Socialist
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
Lions, wolves, and vultures don’t live together in herds, droves or flocks. Of all animals of prey, man is the only sociable one. Every one of us preys upon his neighbor, and yet we herd together.
—John Gay (1685–1732) English Poet, Dramatist
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
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
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
Communism didn’t fall. It was pushed.
—George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) American Republican Statesman, 41st President
Communists are people who fancied that they had an unhappy childhood.
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American Writer
To the believer Marxism presents, first, a system of ultimate ends that embody the meaning of life and are absolute standards by which to judge events and actions…
—Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950) Austrian-American Political Economist, Sociologist
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 Politician, Philosopher, Socialist
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