Jules Renard Quotes

Real socialism is inside man. It wasn't born with Marx. It was in the communes of Italy in the Middle Ages. You can't say it is finished.

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.

What is socialism? Merely Christianity in action.

The ideas of socialism are not modern ideas.

Our power creates collective production in the service of the people and the revolution, destroys exploiting production, transforms individualistic producers into producers integrated into the collectivity.

We approach closer and closer to socialism.

Anarchists are socialists because they want the improvement of society, and they are communists because they are convinced that such a transformation of society can only result from the establishment of a commonwealth of property.

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.

Socialism is... not only a way of life, but a certain scientific approach to social and economic problems.

Socialism values equality more than liberty.

Democracy is not compatible with capitalism but is congruent with a version of democratic socialism in which the wealth, resources, and benefits of a social order are shared in an equitable and just manner.

Socialism is the first popular movement in world history that has set itself the goal of bringing human consciousness, and thereby free will, into play in the social actions of mankind

Socialism will never substitute one class rule for another …. The aim of Socialism is to do away with rule and exploitation in every form, men becoming free and equal, no masters and servants, but comrades, bothers and sisters.

To grasp the true meaning of socialism, imagine a world where everything is designed by the post office, even the sleaze.

What being a socialist means is... that you hold out... a vision of society where poverty is absolutely unnecessary, where international relations are not based on greed... but on cooperation... where human beings can own the means of production and work together rather than having to work as semi-slaves to other people who can hire and fire.

I think that the more of us who take the time to understand how someone else is feeling, the more likely we are to resist alongside them.

If I was asked to define socialism, I would not seek its definition in the texts of Marx or Lenin. I would rather say: it is the religion of life, and the triumph of life over death. By opening the door of employment for everyone, and allowing the gifts and virtues of all human beings to blossom, flower and be fruitful, it preserves what rightfully belongs to life, leaving death nothing but dried meat and rotten bones.

Workers thought that the moment was ripe to take possession once [and] for all the means of production. They armed for self-defense... and began to organize production on their own.... It was the right of property abolished in fact... it was a new regime, a new form of social life that was being ushered in. And the government stood by because it felt impotent to offer opposition.

The socialist labor party of Germany endeavors by every lawful means to bring about a free state and a socialistic society, to effect the destruction of the iron law of wages by doing away with the system of wage labor, to abolish exploitation of every kind, and to extinguish all social and political inequality.

Socialism makes war upon a system not a class…. Labour should capture power, not destroy it.

Although the socialist economies, including those led by communist parties in various parts of the world, have been beset by economic and political problems (including oppression), the aims and objectives that have previously attracted people towards socialism remain still important as they were fifty years ago. The concepts of social justice are also constantly re-emerged after they were weakened by the difficulties encountered in implementing various projects.

Socialism proposes no adequate substitute for the motive of enlightened selfishness that to-day is at the basis of all human labor and effort, enterprise and new activity.

There are neither mendicants no paupers as long as there are any rich people among them. Their kindness, humanity, and courtesy not only make them liberal with what they have, but cause them to possess hardly anything except in common. A whole village must be without corn before any individual can be obliged to endure privation

Socialism and Communism both demand a degree of joint effort and administration which would beget more regulation than is wholly consistent with ideal Anarchism; Individualism and Mutualism …

Our Union cannot safely stand on the cold calculation of interest alone.