It is impossible to predict the time and progress of revolution. It is governed by its own more or less mysterious laws.
Vladimir LeninRead
Capitalists are no more capable of self-sacrifice than a man is capable of lifting himself up by his own bootstraps.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques capitalism by suggesting that capitalists are inherently self-serving and incapable of genuine altruism.
Vladimir Lenin's quote highlights the fundamental nature of capitalists, arguing that they are unlikely to engage in self-sacrifice or altruism because their interests are primarily self-centered. The analogy of lifting oneself by one's own bootstraps illustrates the impracticality of expecting an individual or class that benefits from a system to instigate change from within without imposing sacrifice or effort that contradicts their interests.
Themes
CapitalismSelf-SacrificeAltruismPhilosophySociety
In practice
Example use cases
Discussing economic inequality during a social justice seminar.
More from Vladimir Lenin
All quotes →For the complete extinction of the state, complete Communism is necessary.
Vladimir LeninRead
Medicine is the keystone of the arch of socialism.
Vladimir LeninRead
A democracy is a state which recognizes the subjection of the minority to the majority, that is, an organization for the systematic use of violence by one class against the other, by one part of the population against another.
Vladimir LeninRead
We are not utopians, we do not “dream” of dispensing at once with all administration, with all subordination. These anarchist dreams, based upon incomprehension of the tasks of the proletarian dictatorship, are totally alien to Marxism, and, as a matter of fact, serve only to postpone the socialist revolution until people are different. No, we want the socialist revolution with people as they are now, with people who cannot dispense with subordination, control, and "foremen and accountants".
Vladimir LeninRead
The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
Vladimir LeninRead
Similar quotes
Our animal friends’ non-reactive and forgiving natures can teach us positive spiritual lessons on a daily basis.
Eckhart TolleRead
It has always irked me as improper that there are still so many people for whom the sky is no more than a mass of random points of light. I do not see why we should recognize a house, a tree, or a flower here below and not, for example, the red Arcturus up there in the heavens as it hangs from its constellation Bootes, like a basket hanging from a balloon.
M. C. EscherRead
Irony has only emergency use. Carried over time it is the voice of the trapped who have come to enjoy their cage.
Lewis HydeRead
All other ways of mortification are vain, all helps leave us helpless; it must be done by the Spirit.
John OwenRead
Bread has been made (indifferent) from potatoes;_x000D_ _x000D_ And galvanism has set some corpses grinning,_x000D_ _x000D_ But has not answer'd like the apparatus_x000D_ _x000D_ Of the Humane Society's beginning,_x000D_ _x000D_ By which men are unsuffocated gratis:_x000D_ _x000D_ What wondrous new machines have late been spinning.
Lord ByronRead
If, indeed, a firearm were more dangerous to its possessors than to potential aggressors, would it not make sense for the government to arm all criminals, and let them accidentally shoot themselves? Is this absurd? Yes, and yet the government, of course, is arming criminals.
David MametRead