20+ Joseph Stalin Quotes to Reflect on Power, Politics, and the Complexities of Leadership
- December 18, 1878 – March 5, 1953
- Born in Georgia
- Politician
- As Secretary General of the Communist Party, he governed the Soviet Union, promoted industrialization and collectivization, and led the Allied forces to victory in World War II, but at the same time, he suffered many casualties from the large-scale political repression known as the Great Purge.
- “The people who cast the votes don’t decide an election, the people who count the votes do.”
- “You cannot make a revolution with silk gloves.”
- “One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.”
- “If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves.”
- “Mankind is divided into rich and poor, into property owners and exploited; and to abstract oneself from this fundamental division; and from the antagonism between poor and rich means abstracting oneself from fundamental facts.”
- “Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.”
- “Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army can reach.”
- “We don’t let them have ideas. Why would we let them have guns?”
- “If any foreign minister begins to defend to the death a ‘peace conference’, you can be sure his government has already placed its orders for new battleships and airplanes.”
- “Print is the sharpest and the strongest weapon of our party.”
- “I believe in one thing only, the power of human will.”
- “When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use.”
- “The Pope? How many divisions has he got?”
- “Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.”
- “The writer is the engineer of the human soul.”
- “Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs.”
- “A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron.”
- “In the Soviet army it takes more courage to retreat than advance.”
- “The only real power comes out of a long rifle.”
- “Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union.”
- “It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.”
- “Death is the solution to all problems. No man – no problem.”
- “History shows that there are no invincible armies.”
- “I trust no one, not even myself.”