To rely upon conviction, devotion, and other excellent spiritual qualities; that is not to be taken seriously in politics.

Freedom of speech and the press must be complete. But then freedom of association must be complete too.

The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them in parliament.

To picture world history as advancing smoothly and steadily without sometimes taking gigantic strides backward is undialectical, unscientific and theoretically wrong.

The history of all countries shows that the working class exclusively by its own effort is able to develop only trade-union consciousness.

The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.

Autocracy cannot do without its twin agents: a hangman and a priest, the first to suppress popular resistance by force, the second to sweeten and embellish the lot of the oppressed with empty promises of a heavenly kingdom.