It is impossible to predict the time and progress of revolution. It is governed by its own more or less mysterious laws.
Vladimir LeninRead
Pacifism, the preaching of peace in the abstract, is one of the means of duping the working class.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Pacifism may deceive the working class by offering an abstract notion of peace without addressing their real struggles.
In this quote, Lenin critiques pacifism as a political stance that prioritizes theoretical peace over the tangible struggles and injustices faced by the working class. He suggests that promoting peace in an abstract sense can serve as a distraction or manipulation that undermines the necessity of confronting social and economic inequalities directly, thus keeping the working class complacent and unaware of their true position in society.
Themes
PacifismPeaceWorking ClassStruggleSocial Justice
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on social justice, one could use this quote to argue against complacency in activism.
More from Vladimir Lenin
All quotes βFor the complete extinction of the state, complete Communism is necessary.
Vladimir LeninRead
Medicine is the keystone of the arch of socialism.
Vladimir LeninRead
A democracy is a state which recognizes the subjection of the minority to the majority, that is, an organization for the systematic use of violence by one class against the other, by one part of the population against another.
Vladimir LeninRead
We are not utopians, we do not βdreamβ of dispensing at once with all administration, with all subordination. These anarchist dreams, based upon incomprehension of the tasks of the proletarian dictatorship, are totally alien to Marxism, and, as a matter of fact, serve only to postpone the socialist revolution until people are different. No, we want the socialist revolution with people as they are now, with people who cannot dispense with subordination, control, and "foremen and accountants".
Vladimir LeninRead
The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
Vladimir LeninRead
Similar quotes
This was another of our fears: that Life wouldn't turn out to be like Literature.
Julian BarnesRead
In my own life I know that my state of cheerfulness is a reliable gauge of my level of spiritual enlightenment at that moment. The more cheerful, happy, contented, and satisfied I am feeling, the more aware I am of my deep connection to Spirit.
Wayne DyerRead
I am not very impressed with theological arguments whatever they may be used to support. Such arguments have often been found unsatisfactory in the past. In the time of Galileo it was argued that the texts, 'And the sun stood still... and hasted not to go down about a whole day' (Joshua x. 13) and 'He laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not move at any time' (Psalm cv. 5) were an adequate refutation of the Copernican theory.
Alan TuringRead
Eyes and ears are poor witnesses to people if they have uncultured souls.
HeraclitusRead
The soul in man is greater than his fate.
Sri AurobindoRead
Except ye become as little children, except you can wake on your fiftieth birthday with the same forward-looking excitement and interest in life that you enjoyed when you were five, "ye cannot enter the kingdom of God." One must not only die daily, but every day we must be born again.
Dorothy L. SayersRead