Freedom does not consist in any dreamt-of independence from natural laws, but in the knowledge of these laws, and in the possibility this gives of systematically making them work towards definite ends.

Freedom is the recognition of necessity.

All that is real in human history becomes irrational in the process of time.

Look at the Paris Commune. That was the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

And what is impossible to science?

The proletariat uses the State not in the interests of freedom but in order to hold down its adversaries, and as soon as it becomes possible to speak of freedom the State as such ceases to exist.

I have learned more [from Balzac] than from all the professional historians, economists, and statisticians put together.