Leon Trotsky Quotes

The United States is now, as the defunct Soviet Union was decades ago, the subversive agent of a world revolution.

The Russian Communist Party is not just any party. History decreed that the R.C.P was to become a mighty instrument of human progress and a major instrument of the world revolution. Its importance is great and immeasurable in the history not only of Russia but also in that of the whole world

A mighty influence is abroad, surging and heaving the world.

Soldiers, you are going to finish the greatest task which heaven can charge to a man: to save a whole world from slavery... Soldiers, Peru and the whole of America are waiting for you to deliver peace, the child of victory. Even free Europe looks upon you with favor: for the freedom of the New World is the life of the universe.

We believe we are creating the beginning of a new world order coming out of the collapse of the US-Soviet antagonisms.

Americans, [John Adams] wrote in 1780, believed that their "revolution is as much for the benefit of the generality of Mankind in Europe, as for their own."

My 40 years in the foreign service and the careers of many of my friends became associated with the fall of the Soviet Empire and the putting in order of what came after - the building of a Europe whole, free, and at peace. It's hard to recall today how improbable victory in the Cold War appeared.

A great democratic revolution is taking place in our midst.

It is madness beyond compare To try to reform the world.

The accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible.

The rout of fascism, in which the Soviet Union played the decisive role, generated a mighty tide of socio-political changes which swept across the globe.

The greatest human ideal is the great cause of bringing together the thoughts of Europe and Asia; the great soul of India will topple our world.

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.

We're at a moment when the international system is in a period of change like we haven't seen for several hundred years. In some parts of the world, the nation state, on which the existing international system was based, is either giving up its traditional aspects, like in Europe, or as in the Middle East, where it was never really fully established, it is no longer the defining element. So in those two parts of the world, there is tremendous adjustment in traditional concepts.

Student: Sir, you said you must change the world. How can you change it, sir? Krishnamurti: What is the world? The world is where you live - your family, your friends, your neighbours. And your family, your friends, your neighbours can be extended and that is the world. Now, you are the centre of that world. That is the world you live in. Now how will you change the world? By changing yourself?

It seems strangely difficult for some to realize that here in Asia is where the Communist conspirators have elected to make their play for global conquest, and that we have joined the issue thus raised on the battlefield; that here we fight Europe's war with arms while the diplomats there still fight it with words; that if we lose the war to communism in Asia the fall of Europe is inevitable, win it and Europe most probably would avoid war and yet preserve freedom. As you pointed out, we must win. There is no substitute for victory.

NATO and the USA wanted a complete victory over the Soviet Union. They wanted to sit on the throne in Europe alone.

Europe is a molehill. All great empires and revolutions have been on the Orient; six hundred millions live there.

The old world order changed when this war-storm broke. The old international order passed away as suddenly, as unexpectedly, and as completely as if it had been wiped out by a gigantic flood, by a great tempest, or by a volcanic eruption. The old world order died with the setting of that day's sun and a new world order is being born while I speak, with birth-pangs so terrible that it seems almost incredible that life could come out of such fearful suffering and such overwhelming sorrow.

You don't pick your revolution. It picks you.

Over the last twenty years, we've changed the world just enough to make it radically different, but not enough to make it work.

Most likely, the system of mutual relations that has evolved in Eastern Europe and Asia corresponds to another level of governance.

For me, the movement has to be bigger than just a record. For me, a movement represents like taking over the world.

What produces the general good is always terrible or seems bizarre when begun too soon. The Revolution must stop when it has perfected public happiness and liberty through the laws.

I am waiting for the war to be fought which will make the world safe for anarchy