Communism needs democracy like the human body needs oxygen.
Leon TrotskyRead
The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that the outcomes of actions can validate the methods used to achieve them, provided those outcomes are morally justified.
Leon Trotsky's quote reflects a philosophical viewpoint on ethics and morality, suggesting that the ultimate goals we strive for can legitimize the actions we take to achieve them, but those goals must be morally sound and justified. It raises the question of whether it is acceptable to engage in questionable actions if they lead to a beneficial outcome, emphasizing the importance of the end objective and its underlying justification.
Themes
EthicsMoralityEndsMeansJustification
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about ethical leadership, this quote could be used to argue that goals must be ethically sound.
More from Leon Trotsky
All quotes →Abusive language and swearing are a legacy of slavery, humiliation, and disrespect for human dignity, one’s own and that of other people.
Leon TrotskyRead
In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat.
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Man will become immeasurably stronger, wiser, and subtler; his body will become more harmonious, his movements more rhythmic, his voice more musical. The forms of life will become dynamically dramatic. The average human type will rise to the heights of an Aristotle, a Goethe, or a Marx. And above these heights, new peaks will rise.
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The masses go into a revolution not with a prepared plan of social reconstruction, but with a sharp feeling that they cannot endure the old regime. Only the guiding layers of a class have a political program, and even this still requires the test of events and the approval of the masses.
Leon TrotskyRead
History has different yardsticks for the cruelty of the Northerners and the cruelty of the Southerners in the Civil War. A slave-owner who through cunning and violence shackles a slave in chains, and a slave who through cunning or violence breaks the chains – let not the contemptible eunuchs tell us that they are equals before a court of morality!
Leon TrotskyRead
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