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But if socialism is a social necessity, then it would be human nature and not socialism which would have to readjust itself, if ever the two clashed.

— Karl Kautsky

Ist aber der Sozialismus eine gesellschaftliche Notwendigkeit, dann wäre, wenn er in Konflikt mit der Menschennatur käme, diese es, die den Kürzeren ziehen würde und nicht der Sozialismus.

Original text (German)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Preface to Atlanticus, Produktion und Konsum im Sozialstaat (Production and Consumption in the Social State or in the Welfare State; Stuttgart: Verlag J.H.W. Dietz Nachf, 1989), p. xiv.

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Socialism

More quotes by Karl Kautsky

The Bolsheviki under Lenin's leadership, however, succeeded in capturing control of the armed forces in Petrograd and later in Moscow and thus laid the foundation for a new dictatorship in place of the old Czarist dictatorship.

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The choice of methods and weapons to be used by the champions of democracy will not depend upon our wishes but will be determined by political and social conditions. and especially by the methods and weapons of the enemy.

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Our duty is not merely to abolish the capitalist order but to set up a higher order in its place. But we must oppose those forces aiming to destroy capitalism only in order to replace it with another barbarous mode of production.

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Under all circumstances we shall remain the champions of democracy and humanity. We reject as senseless and cruel and ruinous to both our cause and our nation the suggestion that we strive to arrive at humanity by the method of brutality.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Karl Kautsky (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.