Great Quotes

"Philosophy and the study of the actual world have the same relation to one another as masturbation and sexual love." (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German Ideology, International Publishers, ed. Chris Arthur, p. 103)

"It is the impossibility of living by any other means that compels our farm laborers to till the soil whose fruits they will not eat, and our masons to construct buildings in which they will not live. It is want that drags them to those markets where they await masters who will do them the kindness of buying them. It is want that compels them to go down on their knees to the rich man in order to get from him permission to enrich him. . . . What effective gain has the suppression of slavery brought him? . . . He is free you say. Ah! That is his misfortune. The slave was precious to his master because of the money he had cost him. But the handicraftsman costs nothing to the rich voluptuary who employs him. . . . These men, it is said, have no master—they have one, and the most terrible, the most imperious of masters, that is need. It is this that reduces them to the most cruel dependence."
—Simon-Nicholas Henri Linguet

"Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in the ancient Greek republics: freedom for the slave-owners."
—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

"What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable."
—Karl Marx

"[S]o blind is the capitalist class that it does nothing to lengthen its lease of life, while it does everything to shorten it. The capitalist class offers nothing that is clean, noble, and alive. The revolutionists offer everything that is clean, noble, and alive. They offer service, unselfishness, sacrifice, martyrdom—the things that sting awake the imagination of the people, touching their hearts with the fervor that arises out of the impulse toward good and which is essentially religious in its nature."
—Jack London

"Charity should be abolished and replaced by justice."
—Norman Bethune

"Economists are the enemies of society."
—Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

"We are convinced that liberty without socialism is privilege, injustice; and that socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality."
—Mikhail Bakunin

"If you turn the other cheek, you will get a harder blow on it than you got on the first one. This does not always happen, but it is to be expected, and you ought not to complain if it does happen."
—George Orwell

"The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn't betray it, I'd be ashamed of myself."
—Noam Chomsky

"The masses have never believed in sophisms taught by economists, uttered more to confirm exploiters in their rights than to convert exploited!"
—Peter Kropotkin

"Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen, instead, to have overwork for some and starvation for the others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines; in this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish for ever."
—Bertrand Russell

"All great truths begin as blasphemies."
—George Bernard Shaw

http://www.durhamtownship.com/January0107.html

"The first man who, having enclosed a piece of land, thought to himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this imposter; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself belongs to nobody."
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"Capital is dead labor which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks."
—Karl Marx

"You may not be interested in the dialectic, but the dialectic is interested in you."
—Leon Trotsky

"It is true that those who possess the capital will also posses the political power, but in the end true capital does not consist in bank notes, gold or stocks, but in the ability and willingness of millions of people to work and help others. When the Party will have this capital in its possession, it will rule the world."

"The Party commands throbbing hearts, strong arms and bright minds. The Party's capital consists in the people, this is why the Party will triumph."

- Kai Murros

"Imperialism has now reached a degree of almost scientific perfection. It uses White workers to conquer the non-white workers of The Colonies. Then, it hurls the non-white workers of one colony against those of another non-white colony. Finally, it relies on the Colored workers of the colonies to rule the White workers. Recently, White French soldiers near mutiny in the occupied Ruhr of Germany, were surrounded by French African soldiers, and colored native light-infantry were sent against White German strikers..."

- Ho Chi Minh

"What to do, when a ship carrying a hundred passengers suddenly capsizes and there is only one lifeboat? When the lifeboat is full, those who hate life will try to load it with more people and sink the lot. Those who love and respect life will take the ship's axe and sever the extra hands that cling to the sides."

- Pentti Linkola

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."

- Mark Twain

"No one ever spake such warlike words: 'What is good? To be brave is good. It is the good war that halloweth every cause.'

- Friedrich Nietzsche

"I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will."
—Antonio Gramsci

"No other class has its hands so closely on the basic work without which the system grinds to a halt. Not a wheel can turn without them. No other class can precipitate a social crisis by the deliberate decision of its organized cadres as in a large-scale strike. When the working class goes into battle, all of society is embroiled, for all depends on it. Every time the working class stirs, the rest of society quivers."
—Hal Draper

"Individuality is not to be confused with the various ideas and concepts of Individualism; much less with that 'rugged individualism' which is only a masked attempt to repress and defeat the individual and his individuality. So-called Individualism is the social and economic laissez-faire: the exploitation of the masses by means of legal trickery, spiritual debasement and systematic indoctrination of the servile spirit. . . That corrupt and perverse 'individualism' is the strait jacket of individuality. It has converted life into a degrading race for externals, for possession, for social prestige and supremacy. . . It has inevitably resulted in the greatest modern slavery, the crassest class distinctions driving millions to the breadline. 'Rugged individualism' has meant all the 'individualism' for the masters, while the people are regimented into a slave caste to serve a handful of self-seeking 'supermen'. . . Their 'rugged individualism' is simply one of the many pretenses the ruling class makes to mask unbridled business and political extortion."
—Emma Goldman

"Your Markist Bourgeois Proletarian crap!" - AmericanCelticScotsman

“The Capitalist system with its exploitation of those who are economically weak, with its robbery of the workers’ labour power, with its unethical way of appraising human beings by the number of things and the amount of money he possesses, instead of by their internal value and their achievements, must be replaced by a new and just economic system, in a word by German Socialism.”

-Gregor Strasser

"For really I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he; and therefore truly, sir, I think it's clear, that every man that is to live under a government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that government; and I do think that the poorest man in England is not at all bound in a strict sense to that government that he hath not had a voice to put himself under.

-Thomas Rainsborough

"Freeborn"

- John Lilburne

Much as I dislike threadomancy, here's a quote by Slavoj Žižek about real revolution & about looking for left-wing nationalist heroes:

One should oppose the fascination with Hitler according to which Hitler was, of course, a bad guy, responsible for the death of millions — but he definitely had balls, he pursued with iron will what he wanted. … This point is not only ethically repulsive, but simply wrong: no, Hitler did not ‘have the balls’ to really change things; he did not really act, all his actions were fundamentally reactions, i.e., he acted so that nothing would really change, he stages a big spectacle of Revolution so that the capitalist order could survive. In this precise sense of violence, Gandhi was more violent than Hitler: Gandhi’s movement effectively endeavored to interrupt the basic functioning of the British colonial state.

The coward believes he will live forever
If he holds back in the battle,
But in old age he shall have no peace
Though spears have spared his limbs

- The Havamal

"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth."

- Revelation 3:15-16

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. "

- Gandhi

"People will talk about your disgrace forever. To the honored, dishonor is worse than death." (2.34)

"Your enemies will speak many unmentionable words and scorn your ability. What could be more painful to you than this?" (2.36)

- Bhagavad Gita


“We must be diligent today. To wait until tomorrow is too late. Death comes unexpectedly; how can we bargain with it?”

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.”

“Look at this glittering world, like unto a royal chariot; the foolish are immersed in it, but the wise do not touch it.”

“An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.”

- Siddhartha Gautama (The founder of Buddhism)

"Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms."

"Man truly achieves his true potential when he produces without the necessity of selling himself as a commodity"

- Che Guevara

"The law is an adroit mixture of customs that are beneficial to society, and could be followed even if no law existed, and others that are of advantage to a ruling minority, but harmful to the masses of men, and can be enforced on them only by terror."

- Peter Kropotkin

Speaking of Che Guevara,

I am not Christ or a philanthropist, old lady, I am all the contrary of a Christ.... I fight for the things I believe in, with all the weapons at my disposal and try to leave the other man dead so that I don't get nailed to a cross or any other place.

RedSun wrote:Speaking of Che Guevara,

I am not Christ or a philanthropist, old lady, I am all the contrary of a Christ.... I fight for the things I believe in, with all the weapons at my disposal and try to leave the other man dead so that I don't get nailed to a cross or any other place.

And speaking of Christ.

"Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

- Matthew 19:24

Hmm so much for Godonomics?

“He who amongst you sees evil should stop it with his hand, and if he has not strength enough to do this, then he should speak out against it with his tongue, and if he has not strength enough to do even this, then he should hate it with his heart, and that is the least of faith.”

“To earn through labor is the best way to earn, provided the work is done with sincerity.”

- Prophet Mohammed

"The Pope? How many Divisions does he have?" - Josef Stalin
"Women hold half of the sky" - Mao
"Revolutions are not made with silk gloves" - Stalin
"Capitalism is like a vampire. Both live off other people's blood, hide their true selves and seem to be immortal. In the end, both die" - Me
"An ideology spreads itself as far as its army can reach" - Stalin

"The material world and the world of consciousness reciprocally condition each other. Without changing the structure of society one could not change the structure of consciousness. But the converse also remains true; a revolutionary upheaval in the economic and social structure (capitalism) is impossible without a revolution of the society's forms of consciousness. Proletarian (National) revolution must develop simultaneously in both the economic and the 'spiritual' spheres ... Men must therefore think change before they can accomplish change" -John Gerber

This thread should be utilized more often.

"So I went back to the working-class, in which I had been born and where I belonged. I care no longer to climb. The imposing edifice of society above my head holds no delights for me. It is the foundation of the edifice that interests me. There I am content to labor, crowbar in hand, shoulder to shoulder with intellectuals, idealists, and class-conscious workingmen, getting a solid pry now and again and setting the whole edifice rocking. Some day, when we get a few more hands and crowbars to work, we’ll topple it over, along with all its rotten life and unburied dead, its monstrous selfishness and sodden materialism. Then we’ll cleanse the cellar and build a new habitation for mankind, in which there will be no parlor floor, in which all the rooms will be bright and airy, and where the air that is breathed will be clean, noble, and alive." - Jack London

"A good man and a good citizen are not exactly the same thing." - Augustine

"That which is falling, should also be pushed." - Friedrich Nietzsche

"A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another." -Mao Tse Tung

Neither in this world nor elsewhere is there any happiness in store for him who always doubts. ~ Bhagavad Gita

"Tamil Eelam will be a socialist state. By socialism I mean an egalitarian society where human freedom and individual liberties will be guaranteed, where all forms of oppression and exploitation will be abolished. It will be a free society where our people will have maximum opportunity to develop their economy and promote their culture. Tamil Eelam will be a neutral state, committed to non- alignment and friendly to India. respecting her regional policies, particularly the policy of making the Indian Ocean a zone of peace." - Velupillai Pirabahara when speaking about Tamil Eelam.

"Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree." - Ezra Pound