Gus Hall Quotes

By now even the word socialism has so many meanings and interpretations. The Russians call themselves socialists, the Swedes call themselves. And let's not forget that in Germany there was also a national socialism.

If Socialism, like all errors, contains some truth (which, moreover, the Supreme Pontiffs have never denied), it is based nevertheless on a theory of human society peculiar to itself and irreconcilable with true Christianity. Religious socialism, Christian socialism, are contradictory terms; no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist.

All socialism involves slavery. That which fundamentally distinguishes the slave is that he labours under coercion to satisfy anothers desires.

Socialist democracy is not a luxury but an absolute, essential necessity for overthrowing capitalism and building socialism.

Socialism has never and nowhere been at first a working-class movement.

I still believe in what I believed in for 20 years as a Socialist in Parliament, and being a Socialist is not the same as being a utopian.

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.

I am opposed to socialism because it dreams ingenuously of good, truth, beauty, and equal rights.

Socialist is not a human but animal - because human differs from animal in this that he has moral rules, and reds, as their program states, they disobey them.

Socialist: A man suffering from an overwhelming conviction to believe what is not true.

But if by some freak of history communism had caught up with this country, I would have been one of the first people thrown in jail.

The socialistic conception of the West was born in an environment reeking with violence.

I believe that Communism is necessary to the world, and I believe that the heroism of Russia has fired men's hopes in a way which was essential to the realization of Communism in the future. Regarded as a splendid attempt, without which ultimate success would have been very improbable, Bolshevism deserves the gratitude and admiration of all the progressive part of mankind.

To make men Socialists is nothing, but to make Socialism human is a great thing.

Socialism is a monster which will die.

Its [Communism's] unfortunate association with violence encourages a certain evil tendency in human beings.

Socialism: nothing more than the theory that the slave is always more virtuous than his master.

You cannot solve the problem by turning to communism, for communism is based on an ethical relativism and a metaphysical materialism that no Christian can accept.

Socialism is not a science, a sociology in miniature: it is a cry of pain.

Socialism is young and has made errors. Many times revolutionaries lack the knowledge and intellectual courage needed to meet the task of developing the new man with methods different from the conventional ones - and the conventional methods suffer from the influences of the society, which created them.

People call me a socialist sometimes. But, no, you gotta meet real socialists. You'll have a sense of what a socialist is.

One of the bitter ironies of the 20th century was that communism, which began as an egalitarian doctrine accusing capitalism of selfishness and calloused sacrifices of others, became in power a system whose selfishness and callousness toward others made the sins of capitalism pale.

I find that socialism is often misunderstood by its least intelligent supporters and opponents to mean simply unrestrained indulgence of our natural propensity to heave bricks at respectable persons.

If I had to be anything," he told her, "I'd probably be a socialist, but I don't want to be anything.

There can be no immaculate conception of socialism.