Johann Most Quotes

The reign of terror is not a revolution: it is only a necessary instrument in a determined phase of the revolution.

The “terror” of the French Revolution lasted for ten years. The terror that preceded and led to it lasted for a thousand years.

A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.

In the modern world, it is not the poor and the oppressed who have led the great revolutions and/or carried out the worst deeds of violence; rather, it is militant vanguards from among the better educated and more moneyed circles of society.

There are revolutionary committees that practice revolutionary violence, and anyone who opposes the will of the people will have to be chased. Anyone who is opposed to the will of the people becomes a foe of the people. The duty of the revolutionary committee is to practice revolutionary violence against the enemies of the revolution.

A revolution is an act of violence whereby one class shatters the authority of another.

America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.

The revolution will stop at nothing. We have changed the nature of politics.

A revolution [is] not a single act, but rather a chain of collisions and conflicts with the ruling class, which is never ready to submit itself to the will of a democratic majority, but rather defends its predominant position with all means at its disposal, with the help of the powers which the state has built up—the army, the police, the courts and the church

In most revolutions, where events are drawn out, particularly after the initial flush of victory, the masses can feel the gains of the revolution slipping from their hands. The advanced sections of the proletariat, realizing the dangerous situation, begin to become impatient and attempt to recapture the initiative

Patriots have been incapable of removing one brick from this structure by “working within the system.” … There are two paths open to those who love the great America of their forefathers.

No great revolution can happen in a state without revolutions or mutations of private property.

Revolutions do not always establish freedom.

Revolution is not a dinner party, not an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery; it cannot be advanced softly, gradually, carefully, considerately, respectfully, politely, plainly and modestly.

Only idiots think that the proletariat will win a majority right away. First we topple the bourgeoisie. Then we seize power. That is the dictatorship of the proletariat.

If murder and arson and pestilence are unleashed throughout civilized Europe--we can only think of this with horror, outrage and indignation churning in our breasts. And we ask ourselves: are we men, are the proletarians of today still sheep that they can be led dumbly to slaughter?....

If a revolution is to succeed, sometimes you must kill.

The only way a revolution can triumph is through the force of arms.

History teaches us that no great social revolution has ever come about by the use of mere moral force, and history has taught us that no class willingly expropriates itself. In the struggle between king and noble, between noble and bourgeois, something more than moral persuasion was resorted to. It was not quite by "gradual development" that England confiscated the Church lands or that America freed her slaves.

Revolution against imperialism is not an action of inviting guests to have meal, writing articles, braiding, education, softness or fear of enemy. But it is a class wrath seized to topple another class

If the result of so many sacrifices was that the capitalists remain in control, what was the point of the revolution?

A dictator is often a revolutionary who has made a name for himself. A revolutionary is often a bourgeois who hasn't.

[In the French Revolution] there is much to approve and much to condemn…. An essential change was necessary for the happiness and dignity of a great people, long in a state of degradation.

We communist party members should infiltrate among the bandits....we can organize them into the struggle of revolution.

Peaceful surrender of power by the bourgeoisie is possible, if it is convinced that resistance is hopeless and if it prefers to save its skin. It is much more likely, of course, that even in small states socialism will not be achieved without civil war, and for that reason the only program of international Social-Democracy must be recognition of civil war, though violence is, of course, alien to our ideals.