Communism needs democracy like the human body needs oxygen.
Leon TrotskyRead
A means can be justified only by its end. But the end in its turn needs to be justified.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Means and ends are interconnected; both must be justified.
This quote by Leon Trotsky highlights the philosophical debate on the morality and justification of actions (means) in relation to their goals (ends). It suggests that while an action can be justified by its outcome, the outcome itself also requires a justification, prompting deeper consideration of both our methods and our objectives.
Themes
MeansEndsJustificationMoralityPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on ethics, one might quote this to emphasize the need for examining both actions and purposes.
More from Leon Trotsky
All quotes βAbusive language and swearing are a legacy of slavery, humiliation, and disrespect for human dignity, oneβs own and that of other people.
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In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat.
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Man will become immeasurably stronger, wiser, and subtler; his body will become more harmonious, his movements more rhythmic, his voice more musical. The forms of life will become dynamically dramatic. The average human type will rise to the heights of an Aristotle, a Goethe, or a Marx. And above these heights, new peaks will rise.
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The masses go into a revolution not with a prepared plan of social reconstruction, but with a sharp feeling that they cannot endure the old regime. Only the guiding layers of a class have a political program, and even this still requires the test of events and the approval of the masses.
Leon TrotskyRead
History has different yardsticks for the cruelty of the Northerners and the cruelty of the Southerners in the Civil War. A slave-owner who through cunning and violence shackles a slave in chains, and a slave who through cunning or violence breaks the chains β let not the contemptible eunuchs tell us that they are equals before a court of morality!
Leon TrotskyRead
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Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.
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One who not merely beholds the outward shows of things, but catches a glimpse of the soul that looks out of them, whose garment and revelation they are-if he be such, I say, he will stand, for more than a moment, speechless with something akin to that which made the morning stars sing together.
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Much of what ails our modern life is exactly because we reduce the value of a human being to a number, say salary or consumer power.
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Live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.
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Although the time of death is approaching me, I am not afraid of dying and going to Hell or (what would be considerably worse) going to the popularized version of Heaven. I expect death to be nothingness and, for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism.
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