Leon Trotsky

"Similar (of course, far from identical) irritations in similar conditions call out similar reflexes; the more powerful the irritation, the sooner it overcomes personal peculiarities. To a tickle, people react differently, but to a red-hot iron, alike. As a steam-hammer converts a sphere and a cube alike into sheet metal, so under the blow of too great and inexorable events resistances are smashed and the boundaries of "individuality" lost."

5 likes

Source: Leon Trotsky, Max Eastman (2008). “History of the Russian Revolution”, p.70, Haymarket Books

About the author

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Revolutionary, Politician

Leon Trotsky was a key figure in the Russian Revolution and a prominent Marxist theorist known for his ideas on permanent revolution and critiques of Stalinism.

All quotes by Leon Trotsky →

Same author

More quotes by Leon Trotsky

See all →
Leon Trotsky Revolutionary, Politician

"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 horizons of beauty, joy and happiness!"

Read quote
Leon Trotsky Revolutionary, Politician

"All the parties of capitalist society, all its moralists and all its sycophants will perish beneath the debris of the impending catastrophe. The only party that will survive is the party of the world socialist revolution."

Read quote