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The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.

— Leon Trotsky Trotsky's Diary in Exile — 1935 (1958)

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More quotes by Leon Trotsky

I do not measure the historical process by the yardstick of one's personal fate.

No one yet has learned to drive a locomotive sitting in his study.

Terrorism and Communism (1920)

To make the individual sacred we must destroy the social order which crucifies him. And this problem can only be solved by blood and iron.

Terrorism and Communism (1920)

In war, where both success and failure are repaid by death, hostile agents who penetrate into the rear are subject to execution. This is inhuman, but no one ever considered war a school of humanity.

Terrorism and Communism (1920)

Repression for the attainment of economic ends is a necessary weapon of the socialist dictatorship.

Terrorism and Communism (1920)

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