Quote#Hope
In our eyes, individual terror is inadmissible precisely because it…
Quote byLeon Trotsky · 1879–1940
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Why Marxists oppose Individual Terrorism, article published in the Austrian Social Democratic paper Der Kampf (1909).
English (original)
In our eyes, individual terror is inadmissible precisely because it belittles the role of the masses in their own consciousness, reconciles them to their own powerlessness, and turns their eyes and hopes toward a great avenger and liberator who someday will come and accomplish his mission.
— Leon Trotsky
More from Leon Trotsky
Learning carries within itself certain dangers because out of necessity one has to learn from one's enemies.
Leninism is warlike from head to foot. War is impossible without cunning, without subterfuge. without deception of the enemy. Victorious war cunning is a constituent element of Leninist politics. But at the same time, Leninism is supreme …
Capital was really safer in Russia than anywhere else. ... No true Marxist would allow sentiment to interfere with business.
Root out the counterrevolutionaries without mercy, lock up suspicious characters in concentration camps... Shirkers will be shot, regardless of past service.
As long as I breathe I hope. As long as I breathe I shall fight for the future, that radiant future, in which man, strong and beautiful, will become master of the drifting stream of his history and will direct it towards the boundless …
We can only be right with and by the Party, for history has provided no other way of being in the right... And if the Party adopts a decision which one or other of us thinks unjust, he will say, just or unjust, it is my party, and I shall …