David Graeber Quotes

What we were striving for was a kind of modified form of communism.

Communism, being the lay form of Catholicism, and indeed meaning the same thing, has never had any lack of chaplains.

What I experienced in Cuba, I have become a student of what, how communism operates.

Communism has served us ill in having us swap a living brotherhood for what looks to have the features of the coldest of all chill abstractions.

Socialism" is no more an evil word than "Christianity." Socialism no more prescribed Joseph Stalin and his secret police and shuttered churches than Christianity prescribed the Spanish Inquisition. Christianity and socialism alike, in fact, prescribe a society dedicated to the proposition that all men, women, and children are created equal and shall not starve.

We approach closer and closer to socialism.

The goal of socialism is communism.

Socialism is the same as Communism, only better English.

Let's not talk about Communism. Communism was just an idea, just pie in the sky.

Socialism is communism without the firing squad.

We must live under absolute communism.

Socialism and communism are now so near each other that there is hardly any difference between them. In the past they differed from each other as does liberalism from democracy

The ideas of socialism are not modern ideas.

We can't keep flirting with communism and socialism.

Communism is the corruption of a dream of justice.

The idea of Socialism is at once grandiose and simple. . .We may say, in fact, that it is one of the most ambitious creations of the human spirit, . . .so magnificent, so daring, that it has rightly aroused the greatest admiration. If we wish to save the world from barbarism we have to refute Socialism, but we cannot thrust it carelessly aside.

The strongest argument for socialism is that it sounds good. The strongest argument against socialism is that it doesn't work. But those who live by words will always have a soft spot in their hearts for socialism because it sounds so good.

Admittedly communism has not been achieved in Russia. State socialism has been built.

Socialism is like a dream. Sooner or later you wake up to reality.

Socialism is a wonderful idea. It is only as a reality that it has been disastrous. Among people of every race, color, and creed, all around the world, socialism has led to hunger in countries that used to have surplus food to export.... Nevertheless, for many of those who deal primarily in ideas, socialism remains an attractive idea -- in fact, seductive. Its every failure is explained away as due to the inadequacies of particular leaders.

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

In the last few years we have learned to distinguish the means of Socialism from the ends.

Communism is the basis of all sociality and it's the basis of cooperation.

What was wrong with communism wasn't aberrant leadership, it was communism.

Communism and socialism is [sic] seductive. It promises us that people will contribute according to ability and receive according to needs. Everybody is equal. Everybody has a right to decent housing, decent food and affordable medical care. History should have taught us that when we hear people talk this stuff - watch out!