"It is not enough to be a revolutionary and an adherent of socialism or a Communist in general. You must be able at each particular moment to find the particular link in the chain which you must grasp with all your might in order to hold the whole chain and to prepare firmly for the transition to the next link; the order of the links, their form, the manner in which they are linked together, the way they differ from each other in the historical chain of events, are not as simple and not as meaningless as those in an ordinary chain made by a smith."

  "In the second place, Marxism demands an absolutely historical examination of the question of the forms of struggle. To treat this question apart from the concrete historical situation betrays a failure to understand the rudiments of dialectical materialism. At different stages of economic evolution, depending on differences in political, national-cultural, living and other conditions, different forms of struggle come to the fore and become the principal forms of struggle; and in connection with this, the secondary, auxiliary forms of struggle undergo change in their turn. To attempt to answer yes or no to the question whether any particular means of struggle should be used, without making a detailed examination of the concrete situation of the given movement at the given stage of its development, means completely to abandon the Marxist position."

  "Social reforms are never carried by the weakness of the strong, but always by the strength of the weak."

  "It is our duty always to intensify and broaden our work and influence among the masses... Without this work political activity would eventually degenerate into a game."

  "The real education of the masses can never be separated from their independent political, and especially revolutionary, struggle. Only struggle educates the exploited class. Only struggle discloses to it the magnitude of its own power, widens its horizon, enhances its abilities, clarifies its mind, forges its will."

  "..the millions of people will never heed the advice of parties if this advice does not coincide with what the experience of their own lives teaches them."

  "… the masses must have their own political experience. Such is the fundamental law of all great revolutions."

  "Revolution is impossible without a change in the views of the majority of the working class, a change brought about by the political experience of the masses, never by propaganda alone."

  "If you want to help 'the masses' and to win the sympathy, confidence and support of 'the masses,' you must not fear difficulties, you must not fear the pin-pricks, chicanery, insults and persecution of the 'leaders' ..., but must imperatively work wherever the masses are to be found."

  "We do not regard Marx's theory as something completed and inviolable; on the contrary, we are convinced that it has only laid the foundation stone of the science which socialists must develop in all directions if they wish to keep pace with life."

  "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it."

  "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."

  "Practice without theory is blind. Theory without practice is sterile. Theory becomes a material force as soon as it is absorbed by the masses."

  "Without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement."

  "The Marxist doctrine is omnipotent because it is true!"

  "Revolution is impossible without a nation-wide crisis (affecting both the exploited and the exploiters)."

  "Nothing human is alien to me." Marx' favorite aphorism, original by Terence, poet of ancient Rome.