Rosa Luxemburg Quotes

The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening.

Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.

Before a revolution happens, it is perceived as impossible; after it happens, it is seen as having been inevitable.

There is no democracy without socialism, and no socialism without democracy.

The most revolutionary act is a clear view of the world as it really is.

Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently.

Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism.

Being human means throwing your whole life on the scales of destiny when need be, all the while rejoicing in every sunny day and every beautiful cloud.

Without general elections, without freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, without the free battle of opinions, life in every public institution withers away, becomes a caricature of itself, and bureaucracy rises as the only deciding factor.

We will be victorious if we have not forgotten how to learn.

Freedom only for supporters of the government, only for the members of one party - however numerous they may be - is no freedom at all. Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently. Not because of any fanatical concept of 'justice' but because all that is instructive, wholesome and purifying in political freedom depends on this essential characteristic, and its effectiveness vanishes when 'freedom' becomes a special privilege.

Capitalism, as a result of its own inner contradictions, moves toward a point when it will be unbalanced, when it will simply become impossible.

Only to the rude ear of one who is quite indifferent does the song of a bird seem always the same.

The working classes in every country only learn to fight in the course of their struggles.

What do you want with these special Jewish pains? I feel as close to the wretched victims of the rubber plantations in Putamayo and the blacks of Africa with whose bodies the Europeans play ball… I have no special corner in my heart for the ghetto: I am at home in the entire world, where there are clouds and birds and human tears.

Those who don't move don't notice their chains.

Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters.

The clergy, no less than the capitalist class, lives on the backs of the people, profits from the degradation, the ignorance and the oppression of the people.

Tomorrow the revolution will 'rise up again, clashing its weapons,' and to your horror it will proclaim with trumpets blazing: I was, I am, I shall be!

Friedrich Engels once said: "Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism." What does "regression into barbarism" mean to our lofty European civilization? Until now, we have all probably read and repeated these words thoughtlessly, without suspecting their fearsome seriousness. A look around us at this moment shows what the regression of bourgeois society into barbarism means. This world war is a regression into barbarism. The triumph of imperialism leads to the annihilation of civilization.

Bourgeois class domination is undoubtedly an historical necessity, but, so too, the rising of the working class against it. Capital is an historical necessity, but, so too, its grave digger, the socialist proletariat.

The masses are in reality their own leaders, dialectically creating their own development process.

History is the only true teacher, the revolution the best school for the proletariat.

Marxism is a revolutionary worldview that must always struggle for new revelations.

Marxism must abhor nothing so much as the possibility that it becomes congealed in its current form. It is at its best when butting heads in self-criticism, and in historical thunder and lightning, it retains its strength.