Favourite Historical Quotes

[Bostana]

What's your favourite Hisroical quote?

it can come from a revolutionary a leader, a philosopher an author the list goes on.

Mine are actually in my signature.

The people live forever quote from Stalin

And of course

"Workers of the World Unite; the only thing you have to loose is your chains."
-Karl Marx

But there is another quote from someone else.

"The standard for success for too many Americans has become personnel greed rather than common good."
-Marian Wright Edelman

What is yours?

[Ostrinski]

"There is in general good reason to suppose that in several respects the gods could all benefit from instruction by us human beings. We humans are - more humane."- Friedrich Nietzsche

"If men could get pregnant, abortions would be a sacrament."- Gloria Steinem

[Bostana]

"A revolution is impossible without a revolutionary situation; furthermore, not every revolutionary situation leads to revolution."
-Vladimir Lenin

"Any cook should be able to run the country."
-Vladimir Lenin

[bricolage]

eNr0WXQ3Ho4

[dodger]

"a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks", in Milton's magnificent words.

The Reformation would make you feel like that!

"We cannot relate to class battles as sympathisers, cheerleaders commentators." Don't recall how or where I heard this, words struck home, none the less.



***********

[Deicide]

''There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits.''

[Bostana]

"Belief is the death of intelligence."
-Robert Anton Wilson

[Mr. Natural]

Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, "That man's physical and spiritual life is linked to nature means simply that nature is linked to itself, for man is a part of nature."

Marx and Engels, Anti-Duhring, "Nature is the proof of dialectics."

Engels, Anti-Duhring, "To me there could be no question of building the laws of dialectics into nature, but of discovering them in it and evolving them from it."

The point of the preceding quotations is that humans are natural beings who must learn to live by natural "laws" and organization. Marx and Engels knew this, but it seems to have been forgotten by the left--the left that cannot get organized.

[Prometeo liberado]

"Any body else smell gun powder?" JFK

[Franz Fanonipants]

"history for these gentlemen was indeed just one goddamn thing after another."

[dodger]

Vice Admiral Sir Francis Drake (c.1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English privateer, navigator, naval pioneer and raider, politician, and civil engineer, of the Elizabethan period.


For by the life of God, it doth even take my wits from me to think on it. Here is such controversy between the sailors and gentlemen, and such stomaching between the gentlemen and sailors, it doth make me mad to hear it. But, my masters, I must have it left. For I must have the gentleman to haul and draw with the mariner, and the mariner with the gentleman. What! let us show ourselves to be of a company and let us not give occasion to the enemy to rejoice at our decay and overthrow. I would know him that would refuse to set his hand to a rope, but I know there is not any such here . . .

Speech to his crew off of Puerto San Julian, Argentina, prior to entering the Strait of Magellan (May 1578)

[Vyacheslav Brolotov]

“I know that there are, of course, sages who think they are very clever and even call themselves Socialists, who assert that power should not have been seized until the revolution had broken out in all countries. They do not suspect that by speaking in this way they are deserting the revolution and going over to the side of the bourgeoisie. To wait until the toiling classes bring about a revolution on an international scale means that everybody should stand stock-still in expectation. That is nonsense.”
– Lenin, Speech delivered at a joint meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Moscow Soviet, 14th May 1918, Collected Works, Vol. 23, p. 9.

[Revolutionary_Marxist]

These are a couple favorites of mine,

"I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet"
Hugo Chavez

"Sometimes - history needs a push."
Vladimir Lenin

[dodger]

**

I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.
Oliver Cromwell




********

[dodger]

"Oh! The humanity!!"



xiAT9xvTVKI

[GallowsBird]

One of my favourites:


"Break in pieces quickly the Band of particular Propriety, disown this oppressing Murder, Opression and Thievery of Buying and Selling of Land, owning of landlords and paying of Rents and give thy Free Consent to make the Earth a Common Treasury without grumbling.....that all may enjoy the benefit of their Creation"

Another from Mr. Winstanely:


'The King's blood was not our burden, it was those oppressive Norman laws whereby he enslaved us that we groaned under.'

And one from Karl Marx:


A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism.

[dodger]

Thomas Spence born on Newcastle Quayside in 1750. A time when industrial capitalism was gathering momentum as the revolution in manufacturing was transforming Britain, fashioning the working class as it did so. It was a time of radical ideas and insurrection.

It seems likely that Spence coined the term, “the Rights of Man”. On visiting “Jack the Blaster” who’d been a farmer and a miner, but suffered at the whims of landlords to the point he’d dug himself a cave to live in at Marsdon Rocks near South Shields, Spence chalked over his fireplace,

“Ye landlords vile, whose man’s peace mar,
Come levy rents here if you can;
Your stewards and Lawyers I defy,
And live with all the RIGHTS OF MAN.”



*************

[Deicide]

See sig.

[daft punk]

"All practical work in connection with the organization of the uprising was done under the immediate direction of Comrade Trotsky, the president of the Petrograd Soviet. It can be stated with certainty that the Party is indebted primarily and principally to Comrade Trotsky for the rapid going over of the garrison to the side of the Soviet and the efficient manner in which the work of the Military-Revolutionary Committee was organized. The principal assistants of Comrade Trotsky were Comrades Antonov and Podvoisky."
Stalin, Telegram to Lenin.

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1918/11/06.htm

This paragraph was removed from later Russian editions of Stalin's book, for obvious reasons, ie Stalinism was based on lies.

[daft punk]

“Comrade Trotsky played no particular role in the party or the October insurrection and could not do so, being a man comparatively new to our party in the October period.”

(J. Stalin: Trotskyism or Leninism (http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1924/11_19.htm), pp.68f.)

[RedBaltico]

There are many good quotes that can help to think about many thinks, I have been mostly inspired by Albert Einstein, but also by others.


“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
- Albert Einstein

This was one of main quotes of my life, as it is obvious why.


“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” - Albert Einstein

This quote by A. Einstein gives everyone to think about problems we have around the world and how we fail to solve them, by using same methods again and again.


“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” - Albert Einstein


“I believe the most important mission of the state is to protect the individual and make it possible for him to develop into a creative personality. . . .”
- Albert Einstein .

I think this was one of those words that Albert Einstein has proven his socialist views as what is the important role of the state, the protection of the individual, how a socialist state must do all to give opportunities to achieve goals.


“The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
- Albert Einstein


“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” - Albert Einstein

One of main ways how civilization has been developing.


''Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.'' - Albert Einstein

Also one of my important quotes, violence has never proven it's long term solution to achieve peace.


''Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind'' - Albert Einstein


This is good to say to some nationalists :D


"Example isn't another way to teach, it is the only way to teach'' - Albert Einstein

One of main ways how people learn and especially how children learn, they take examples, so do we all, except we sometimes do not notice that, or sometimes we do notice why people act the same.


"Love other human beings as you would love yourself." - Ho chi minh


''Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.''
- Friedrich Engels


''The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything'' - Albert Einstein


Obvious fact, ignorance and selfishness will bring more harm than those who do wrong.


''Can a nation be free if it oppresses other nations? It cannot.''
- Vladimir Lenin


''A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.'' - Charles Darwin

[Bostana]

Stalin, Telegram to Lenin.

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1918/11/06.htm

This paragraph was removed from later Russian editions of Stalin's book, for obvious reasons, ie Stalinism was based on lies.

Wow do you really have to start this?

I mean seriously? I can't even post a thread without you trying to start tendency baiting?

[lombas]

You Ladyes all of Merry England
Who have been to kisse the Dutchesse's hand,
Pray did you lately observe in the Show
A Noble Italian call'd Signior Dildo?

- Earl of Rochester

On a more serious note:

Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today inquisitive, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill.

- Marcus Aurelius

[Deicide]

''History does nothing, it possess no immense wealth, it wages no battles. It is man, real living man, who does all that, who possess and fights; 'history' is not, as it were, a person apart, using man as a means to achieve its own aims, history is nothing but the activity of man pursuing his aims''

[Robespierres Neck]

You Ladyes all of Merry England
Who have been to kisse the Dutchesse's hand,
Pray did you lately observe in the Show
A Noble Italian call'd Signior Dildo?

- Earl of Rochester

Haha. I have another one from Wilmot:

"Here lies our sovereign lord the King,
Whose word no man relies on.
He never said a foolish thing,
Nor ever did a wise one."

"At any hour, you could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of old and evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. We had all the momentum. We were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave...

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."
- Hunter S. Thompson


Nikita Khrushchev: “It’s interesting, isn’t it. I’m of working class origin while your family were landlords.”
Zhou Enlai: “Yes, and we each betrayed our class!”


"Can a nation be free if it oppresses other nations? It cannot."
- Vladimir Lenin


"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
- Benjamin Franklin

"A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes, but to get into accord with them; they are legitimately what directs his conduct in the world."
- Sigmund Freud



"The writer is the engineer of the human soul."
- Josef Stalin

"Happiness lies neither in vice nor in virtue; but in the manner we appreciate the one and the other, and the choice we make pursuant to our individual organization."
- Marquis de Sade

"Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe."
- H. G. Wells

"Idle youth, enslaved to everything; by being too sensitive I have wasted my life."
- Arthur Rimbaud

"Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a fucking sharp knife to it."
- Banksy

"If it takes a bloodbath, lets get it over with."
- Ronald Reagan

"Frogs will permit themselves to be boiled to death. If the temperature of the water in which the frog is sitting is slowly raised, the frog does not become aware of its danger until its too late to do anything about it."
- Robert Theobald

"The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who posses more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on one hand and terrorism in the other."
- Bertrand A. Russel

"Fascism is a big business armed with bayonets."
- Grant Singleton

"Only one thing could have broken our movement: if the adversary had understood its principle and from the first day had smashed with extreme brutality the nucleus of our new movement."
- Adolf Hitler

[daft punk]

Wow do you really have to start this?

I mean seriously? I can't even post a thread without you trying to start tendency baiting?


Look at the two quotes. They say opposite things. Clearly the first was removed and the second was is a lie, and this was for a reason. The reason is that Stalin was killing Trotskyists. The reason he was killing them was not the reason he gave. The reason he gave for killing them was a lie. I started a thread on it and no Stalinist has posted on that thread (http://www.revleft.com/vb/charges-against-trotsky-t168821/index.html?t=168821). Stalinism is based on lies. I have proved that with those two quotes. Can you understand that? Instead of just immediately crying 'tendency baiting' deal with these two quotes. The only way you can do that is to admit to falsification.

http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/664043-L.jpg

http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/index.htm


Leon Trotsky

The Stalin School of Falsification

(1937)

The Stalin School of Falsification was translated by Max Shachtman in 1937 for Pioneer Publishers.
This transcription for the World Wide Web was made from this same edition.
Max Shachtman’s notes are also from the original edition.
Transcribed for the Trotsky Internet Archive (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/index.htm), now a sub-archive of the Marxists’ Internet Archive (http://www.marxists.org/index.htm) by David Walters (http://www.marxists.org/admin/volunteers/biographies/walters.htm) in 1995; revised in 1996 and 2003.
Proofread by Einde O’Callaghan in March 2007.
1. Introduction by Max Shactman (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf01.htm)
2. Foreword by Trotsky (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf02.htm)
3. Foreword to the Russian Edition (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf03.htm)
4. Letter to the Bureau of Party History (Part I) (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf04.htm)
5. Letter to the Bureau of Party History (Part II) (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf05.htm)
6. Letter to the Bureau of Party History (Part III) (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf06.htm)
7. Some Documents Relating to The Origin of the Legend of “Trotskyism” (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf07.htm)
8. The Lost Document (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf08.htm)
9. Two Speeches at the Session of the Central Control Commission (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf09.htm)
10. The War Danger – The Defense Policy and the Opposition (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf10.htm)
11. A Contribution to the Political Biography of Stalin (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf11.htm)
12. How the October Insurrection Actually Took Place (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf12.htm)
13. Appendix: Stalin and the Red Army by N. Markin (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf13.htm)
14. The March 1917 Party Conference (Part I) (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf14.htm)
15. The March 1917 Party Conference (Part II) (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf15.htm)

[Tim Cornelis]

Look at the two quotes. They say opposite things. Clearly the first was removed and the second was is a lie, and this was for a reason. The reason is that Stalin was killing Trotskyists. The reason he was killing them was not the reason he gave. The reason he gave for killing them was a lie. I started a thread on it and no Stalinist has posted on that thread (http://www.revleft.com/vb/charges-against-trotsky-t168821/index.html?t=168821). Stalinism is based on lies. I have proved that with those two quotes. Can you understand that? Instead of just immediately crying 'tendency baiting' deal with these two quotes. The only way you can do that is to admit to falsification.

http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/664043-L.jpg

http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/index.htm


Leon Trotsky

The Stalin School of Falsification

(1937)

The Stalin School of Falsification was translated by Max Shachtman in 1937 for Pioneer Publishers.
This transcription for the World Wide Web was made from this same edition.
Max Shachtman’s notes are also from the original edition.
Transcribed for the Trotsky Internet Archive (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/index.htm), now a sub-archive of the Marxists’ Internet Archive (http://www.marxists.org/index.htm) by David Walters (http://www.marxists.org/admin/volunteers/biographies/walters.htm) in 1995; revised in 1996 and 2003.
Proofread by Einde O’Callaghan in March 2007.
1. Introduction by Max Shactman (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf01.htm)
2. Foreword by Trotsky (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf02.htm)
3. Foreword to the Russian Edition (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf03.htm)
4. Letter to the Bureau of Party History (Part I) (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf04.htm)
5. Letter to the Bureau of Party History (Part II) (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf05.htm)
6. Letter to the Bureau of Party History (Part III) (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf06.htm)
7. Some Documents Relating to The Origin of the Legend of “Trotskyism” (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf07.htm)
8. The Lost Document (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf08.htm)
9. Two Speeches at the Session of the Central Control Commission (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf09.htm)
10. The War Danger – The Defense Policy and the Opposition (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf10.htm)
11. A Contribution to the Political Biography of Stalin (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf11.htm)
12. How the October Insurrection Actually Took Place (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf12.htm)
13. Appendix: Stalin and the Red Army by N. Markin (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf13.htm)
14. The March 1917 Party Conference (Part I) (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf14.htm)
15. The March 1917 Party Conference (Part II) (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/ssf/sf15.htm)


Wow.... You amaze me. Why do you have to derail every single thread with the same scary obsession you have with Trotsky?

This thread is about nice, inspirational, motivational, cool historical quotes, which is not what you did. Your quotes served to spark a debate. Start a new thread if you want to discuss this stupid bullshit.


Instead of just immediately crying 'tendency baiting' deal with these two quotes. The only way you can do that is to admit to falsification.

If this was a thread debating falsification you would be right in saying this, but it's not. You are derailing this thread with your stupid bullshit.

[dodger]

why do you positive rep the most moronic posts?


The Revleft rep system is unfair, it is totally weighted against totalitarian fanatics. As I cannot positive rep my own moronic posts, I am forced to rep other moronic posts. The situation is far from ideal daft punk, please don't judge me too harshly......:thumbup1::thumbup1::thumbup1::thumbu p1:


It's the fault of the system, O.K.?............the thanked posts both by and received are in the public domain...hours of interesting reading.

[daft punk]

Wow.... You amaze me. Why do you have to derail every single thread with the same scary obsession you have with Trotsky?

This thread is about nice, inspirational, motivational, cool historical quotes, which is not what you did. Your quotes served to spark a debate. Start a new thread if you want to discuss this stupid bullshit.



If this was a thread debating falsification you would be right in saying this, but it's not. You are derailing this thread with your stupid bullshit.

Ah, so you get to decide which quotes or comments are acceptable, I see.

All this over a couple of words I wrote to explain why my Stalin quote does not appear in editions printed after 1936, and why it was followed by another Stalin quote which said the opposite of the first one. You bang on about me mentioning Trotsky but at least my quotes were from Stalin.

The OP said nothing about the quotes having to be nice, inspirational, motivational or cool. It said favourite and historical, which applied to mine.

The only people derailing the thread are you, Bostana and Dodger. I simply posted two of my favourite historical quotes as per the OP, with a not of explanation as to why they contradict each other and one vanished.

[dodger]

"The man who has the courage of his platitudes is always a successful man."

Help me out someone.....was that Brecht?:p

[pluckedflowers]

"To articulate what is past does not mean to recognize “how it really was.” It means to take control of a memory, as it flashes in a moment of danger. For historical materialism it is a question of holding fast to a picture of the past, just as if it had unexpectedly thrust itself, in a moment of danger, on the historical subject. The danger threatens the stock of tradition as much as its recipients. For both it is one and the same: handing itself over as the tool of the ruling classes. In every epoch, the attempt must be made to deliver tradition anew from the conformism which is on the point of overwhelming it. For the Messiah arrives not merely as the Redeemer; he also arrives as the vanquisher of the Anti-Christ. The only writer of history with the gift of setting alight the sparks of hope in the past, is the one who is convinced of this: that not even the dead will be safe from the enemy, if he is victorious. And this enemy has not ceased to be victorious."
-- Walter Benjamin

"When a nation has been forced to resort to its right of insurrection, its relationship with the tyrant is then determined by the law of nature. By what right does the tyrant invoke the social contract? He abolished it! The nation, if it deems proper, may preserve the contract insofar as it concerns the relations between citizens. But the end result of tyranny and insurrection is to completely break all ties with the tyrant and to reestablish the state of war between the tyrant and the people. Tribunals and judiciary procedure are designed only for citizens."
--Robespierre

[Geiseric]

I like how nobody actually said anything about the quotes. However, Stalin's quote technically is in line with the thread. I might read Stalin's book of falsification, that could be funny.

[dodger]

The Mask Of Evil

On my wall hangs a Japanese carving,
The mask of an evil demon, decorated with gold lacquer.
Sympathetically I observe
The swollen veins of the forehead, indicating
What a strain it is to be evil.
Bertolt Brecht

Now this certainly is......

[dodger]

The Leader

I wanna be the leader
I wanna be the leader
Can I be the leader?
Can I? I can?
Promise? Promise?
Yippee I'm the leader
I'm the leader

OK what shall we do?

Roger McGough

Well....what in hell's name, do we do?

[Bostana]

It was a good thread till some ass had to start tendency bating:
cough cough daft punk cough cough

[Omsk]

- Revolutions are the locomotives of history.

Karl Marx.

[Rooster]

"As long as the wage-worker is a wage-worker his lot depends on capital."

"The specific economic form, in which unpaid surplus-labour is pumped out of direct producers, determines the relationship of rulers and ruled, as it grows directly out of production itself and, in turn, reacts upon it as a determining element. Upon this, however, is founded the entire formation of the economic community which grows up out of the production relations themselves, thereby simultaneously its specific political form. It is always the direct relationship of the owners of the conditions of production to the direct producers — a relation always naturally corresponding to a definite stage in the development of the methods of labour and thereby its social productivity — which reveals the innermost secret, the hidden basis of the entire social structure and with it the political form of the relation of sovereignty and dependence, in short, the corresponding specific form of the state. This does not prevent the same economic basis — the same from the standpoint of its main conditions — due to innumerable different empirical circumstances, natural environment, racial relations, external historical influences, etc. from showing infinite variations and gradations in appearance, which can be ascertained only by analysis of the empirically given circumstances. "

It's like no one knows who this guy is.

[homegrown terror]

"Gated communities are the pigsties in which the hogs of modern industry wallow" - me to my son, this morning

(okay so it's not historical.....yet)

[seventeethdecember2016]

"I see that you have made three spelling mistakes."
-Thomas de Mahy upon receiving his death sentence

[Peoples' War]

My favorite would be: "Stealing from capitalism is not like stealing our of our own pockets. Marx and Lenin have taught us that anything is ethical, so long as it is in the interest of the proletarian class and its world revolution" - Nicolae Ceausescu

[Movimento Sem Terra]

The Pope! How many divisions has he got ? - Stalin

[Movimento Sem Terra]

The more that social democracy develops, grows, and becomes stronger, the more the enlightened masses of workers will take their own destinies, the leadership of their movement, and the determination of its direction into their own hands - Rosa Luxemburg

[Pheakdei]

I want you to know that everything I did, I did for my country.

-Pol Pot

[ComradeOm]

A current favourite:

"General Chernyayev has taken Tashkent. We do not know why"
The diaries of Russian Minister of the Interior, Pyotr Valuev (1865)

[Imposter Marxist]

"If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party." -Tony Cliff, expounding on Soviet Russian totalitarianism

[TheAltruist]

"Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to the totalitarian state."- Noam Chomsky

[nbj55]

“A revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle between the future and the past.” - Fidel Castro

[DividedandUnited]

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are at." - Theodore Roosevelt.

[homegrown terror]

not so keen on the source, but the quote is still good:

"a kind word and a gun will get you a lot further than a kind word alone" - Al Capone.

[DiaperGrandpa]

"...the postmodern sciences overthrow the static ontological categories and hierarchies characteristic of modernist science. In place of atomism and reductionism, the new sciences stress the dynamic web of relationships between the whole and the part; in place of fixed individual essences (e.g. Newtonian particles), they conceptualize interactions and flows (e.g. quantum fields). Intriguingly, these homologous features arise in numerous seemingly disparate areas of science, from quantum gravity to chaos theory to the biophysics of self-organizing systems. In this way, the postmodern sciences appear to be converging on a new epistemological paradigm, one that may be termed an ecological perspective, broadly understood as ``recogniz the fundamental interdependence of all phenomena and the embeddedness of individuals and societies in the cyclical patterns of nature.''
Finally, postmodern science provides a powerful refutation of the authoritarianism and elitism inherent in traditional science, as well as an empirical basis for a democratic approach to scientific work. For, as Bohr noted, ``a complete elucidation of one and the same object may require diverse points of view which defy a unique description'' -- this is quite simply a fact about the world, much as the self-proclaimed empiricists of modernist science might prefer to deny it. In such a situation, how can a self-perpetuating secular priesthood of credentialed ``scientists'' purport to maintain a monopoly on the production of scientific knowledge? (Let me emphasize that I am in no way opposed to specialized scientific training; I object only when an elite caste seeks to impose its canon of ``high science'', with the aim of excluding [I]a priori alternative forms of scientific production by non-members."--Alan Sokal

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

From Lumumba:

Cruelty, insults and torture can never force me to ask for mercy, because I prefer to die with head high, with indestructible faith and profound belief in the destiny of our country than to live in humility and renounce the principles which are sacred to me.

The day will come when history will speak. But it will not be the history which will be taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations.

It will be the history which will be taught in the countries which have won freedom from colonialism and its puppets.

[ComradeChe]

"If men could get pregnant, abortions would be a sacrament."- Gloria Steinem


I believe this was by Florynce R. Kennedy, if it was corrected later and i missed it I apologize.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/florynce_r_kennedy.html

[eric922]

"Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!"- Augustus Caesar. I don't know why, but it makes me laugh.

"If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill the Buddha"-Zen proverb. I like it because it encourages us to not be dogmatic or take anyone as an authority figure and I think it's something that can apply to politics as well as spirituality.

[Regicollis]

I really like Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary. Some of my favourite entries are:

BOUNDARY, n. In political geography, an imaginary line between two nations, separating the imaginary rights of one from the imaginary rights of the other.

COMMERCE, n. A kind of transaction in which A plunders from B the goods of C, and for compensation B picks the pocket of D of money belonging to E.

CORPORATION, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.

CORONATION, n. The ceremony of investing a sovereign with the outward and visible signs of his divine right to be blown skyhigh with a dynamite bomb.

DEBT, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slave-driver.

DISOBEDIENCE, n. The silver lining to the cloud of servitude.

ECONOMY, n. Purchasing the barrel of whiskey that you do not need for the price of the cow that you cannot afford.

HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.

INSURANCE, n. An ingenious modern game of chance in which the player is permitted to enjoy the comfortable conviction that he is beating the man who keeps the table.

JUSTICE, n. A commodity which is a more or less adulterated condition the State sells to the citizen as a reward for his allegiance, taxes and personal service.

KLEPTOMANIAC, n. A rich thief.

LABOR, n. One of the processes by which A acquires property for B.

MAMMON, n. The god of the world's leading religion. The chief temple is in the holy city of New York.

OATH, n. In law, a solemn appeal to the Deity, made binding upon the conscience by a penalty for perjury.

PIRACY, n. Commerce without its folly-swaddles, just as God made it.

PLEBISCITE, n. A popular vote to ascertain the will of the sovereign.

POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

PRESIDENT, n. The leading figure in a small group of men of whom — and of whom only — it is positively known that immense numbers of their countrymen did not want any of them for President.

RIOT, n. A popular entertainment given to the military by innocent bystanders.

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

'Even if you're in a minority of one, the truth is the truth' - Mohandas Gandhi

'The reason people use a crucifix against vampires is because vampires are allergic to bullshit.' - Richard Pryor

'If you meet a powerful person--ask them five questions:
What power have you got?
Where did you get it from?
In whose interests do you use it?
To whom are you accountable?
How do we get rid of you?' - Tony Benn

[ВАЛТЕР]

This one isn't necessarily "historical" but I really love it.


"There were two 'Reigns of Terror', if we could but remember and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passions, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon a thousand persons, the other upon a hundred million; but our shudders are all for the "horrors of the... momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty and heartbreak? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief terror that we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror - that unspeakable bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves."

- Mark Twain

This one is great too:


Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

-Denis DiderotI really like this Machiavelli quote:


"For it must be noted, that men must either be caressed or else annihilated; they will revenge themselves for small injuries, but cannot do so for great ones; the injury therefore that we do to a man must be such that we need not fear his revenge."

- Niccolo Machiavelli There's too many more.

[wsg1991]

Abu Dharr al-Ghifari ,
عجبت لمن لا يجد القوت في بيته، كيف لا يخرج على الناس شاهرا سيفه
i am astonished by someone who can't afford food to his family , and don't raise his sword against the public
i am not sure about the translation

[wsg1991]

they steal your bread , give you a piece , and then tell you to be grateful for their generosity , how rude they are !! ( Ghassan Kanafani )
يسرقون رغيف خبزك .. ثم يعطونك منه كسرة .. ثم يأمرونك أن تشكرهم على كرمهم .. يالوقاحتهم !! " غسان كنفاني ..اا

[Sea]

A single ray of light from a distant star falling upon the eye of a tyrant in bygone times may have altered the course of his life, may have changed the destiny of nations, may have transformed the surface of the globe, so intricate, so inconceivably complex are the processes in Nature.

--Nikola Tesla

[Deliverous]

"Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily." - Napoleon

"My country is the world and my religion is to do good" - Thomas Paine

[Brosa Luxemburg]

From George Carlin:

"If crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight?"

"Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do 'practice'?"

"The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it."

[wsg1991]

From George Carlin:

"If crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight?"

"Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do 'practice'?"

"The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it."

i did download all his shows collection from pirate bay , he was getting much better as he grow up ,

[¿Que?]

"We are not in the least afraid of ruins." -Durruti

[Geiseric]

"Never has a debt of so much been owed to so many by so few!" -Distorted churchill quote that I heard a drunk Irish man yell at a party. "I am spartacus!" -Hopefully that scene from the movie Spartacus actually happened. "And Hitler repeated the mongoloid ravings of mussolini as Europe watched, nonetheless with a Charlie Chaplain moustache!" -Trotsky

[Comrade Trollface]

"MAKE ULTIMATE DESTROY"
-Abraham Lincoln

[TheRedJew]

everything is possible when you stop being retarted!

[Deicide]

"And Hitler repeated the mongoloid ravings of mussolini as Europe watched, nonetheless with a Charlie Chaplain moustache!" -Trotsky

Is this from Trotsky's polemics against 'National Socialism'?

[Comrade Trollface]

I think its from a re-mixed Devo song.

[Tim Cornelis]

"If men could get pregnant, abortions would be a sacrament."- Gloria Steinem

I don't think this is accurate at all. Men don't necessarily oppose abortion more than women, getting a woman pregnant--after all--is generally a big fear among men.

(from wikipedia)


A July 2006 MORI survey found that 26% of Chileans believed that abortion is "justified," up from 18% in 1990.[14]

A July 2008 all-female nation-wide face-to-face poll by NGO Corporación Humanas found that ... 24% [of Chilean women were in favor of decriminalizing abortion] in all cases a woman decided it was appropriate.

If both these figures are accurate, it means circa 28% of Chilean men consider abortion justified, whereas only 24% of Chilean women consider abortion justified.

[Comrade Trollface]

I don't think this is accurate at all. Men don't necessarily oppose abortion more than women, getting a woman pregnant--after all--is generally a big fear among men.

(from wikipedia)



If both these figures are accurate, it means circa 28% of Chilean men consider abortion justified, whereas only 24% of Chilean women consider abortion justified.

But you're missing something important. These are opinions held by people in a world where men cannot get pregnant. Men (more to the point, patriarchal ideology) largely control Church dogma and the means of mass communication. These ideas do not pop up in either men's or women's heads out of thin air, they are put there by the church and the media, both of which are patriarchal in nature.