"The working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes."

"We shall be told that the peasant is an individualist, that he is for private property. But we reply that he is also for social property, if only he can make a profit out of it."

"The more powerful the resistance of the exploiting classes, the more ruthless, the more merciless, the more uncompromising must be the struggle."

"The more a country is backward, the more difficult it is for it to pass from capitalism to socialism."

"There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us precisely because he is a scoundrel."