“But the [communist] authorities acquire from Marxism a splendid method and abounding phraseology to justify whatever piggery.”

— Aleksandr Zinovyev

On the Social State of Marxism (1978)

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Aleksandr Zinovyev 28

Russian writer 1922–2006

Aleksandr Zinovyev (1922–2006) Russian writer

On the Social State of Marxism (1978)

“Marxism was a philosophical or semi-philosophical doctrine and a political ideology which was used by the communist state as the main source of legitimacy and the obligatory faith.”

Leszek Kolakowski (1927–2009) Philosopher, historian of ideas

New Preface, p. v
Main Currents Of Marxism (1978)

“Trotskyism is not a new movement, a new doctrine, but the restoration, the revival of genuine Marxism as it was expounded and practiced in the Russian revolution and in the early days of the Communist International.”

James P. Cannon (1890–1974) American politician

History of American Trotskyism

“We Communists must not separate our study of theory from our ideological self-cultivation. We must remould ourselves and temper our proletarian ideology not only in the practice of revolution but in the study of Marxism-Leninism.”

Liu Shaoqi (1898–1969) 2nd President of the People's Republic of China (1898-1969)

Source: "How to Be a Good Communist - 4. The Unity of Theoretical Study and Ideological Self-Cultivation" https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/liu-shaoqi/1939/how-to-be/ch04.htm (July 1939)

“In an abstract but real sense, Marxism arose through the breakdown first of religion and then of 'reason' as single sources of authority.”

Bernard Crick (1929–2008) British political theorist and democratic socialist

Source: In Defence Of Politics (Second Edition) – 1981, Chapter 5, A Defence Of Politics Against Technology, p. 102.

“The order of authority derives from God, as the Apostle says [ in Romans 13:1-7]. For this reason, the duty of obedience is, for the Christian, a consequence of this derivation of authority from God, and ceases when that ceases. But, as we have already said, authority may fail to derive from God for two reasons: either because of the way in which authority has been obtained, or in consequence of the use which is made of it. There are two ways in which the first may occur. Either because of a defect in the person, if he is unworthy; or because of some defect in the way itself by which power was acquired, if, for example, through violence, or simony or some other illegal method.”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

in Aquinas: Selected Political Writings (Basil Blackwell: 1974), p. 183
Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard

“The contradictions are obvious, but whether they derive from the authors’ irrationality or from their fidelity to the real quality of lived experience is not so easy to say. If "Marxism-Stirnerism" is conceivable, every orthodoxy prating of freedom or liberation is called into question, anarchism included.”

Bob Black (1951) American anarchist

Preface to The Right To Be Greedy (1983 edition)
Context: The individualists have only worshipped their whims. The point, however, is to live them. Is this a put-on, a piece of parlor preciosity? There is more than a touch of that here. Or a mushminded exercise in incongruous eclecticism? The individualist egoist is bound to be skeptical, but he should not be too quick to deprive himself of the insights (and the entertainment!) of this unique challenge to his certitudes. The contradictions are obvious, but whether they derive from the authors’ irrationality or from their fidelity to the real quality of lived experience is not so easy to say. If "Marxism-Stirnerism" is conceivable, every orthodoxy prating of freedom or liberation is called into question, anarchism included. The only reason to read this book, as its authors would be the first to agree, is for what you can get out of it.

“The real and active Communists in Australia present us with our immediate problem - not the woolly-headed dupes, not the people who are pushed to the front in order to present a respectable appearance, but the real and active Communists. We have a clear choice, and we must make it clearly. We can attack these Communists frontally, or we can adopt inaction and justify it by accepting one or all of the arguments that are used currently to justify inaction.”

Robert Menzies (1894–1978) Australian politician, 12th Prime Minister of Australia

House of Representatives, Canberra, 27 April, 1950
Second Term as Prime Minister (1949-1966)
Source: http://www.australianquotes.com/quotes_1950-present.php

“Acquire the art of detachment, the virtue of method, and the quality of thoroughness, but above all the grace of humility.”

William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospi…

As quoted in The Book of Unusual Quotations (1957) by Rudolf Franz Flesch, p. 122.

“Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method.”

Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892-1940)

Unpacking my Library: A Talk About Book Collecting (1931)
Context: Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method. … Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like.

“But the [communist] authorities acquire from Marxism a splendid method and abounding phraseology to justify whatever piggery.”

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