“Social Democracy must remain for itself, must seek for and generate its power within itself. Every power outside of ourselves on which we seek to lean is for us only weakness. In the consciousness of our strength, in our faith in the world-conquering mission of socialism lies the secret of our extraordinary, almost miraculous success.”

— Wilhelm Liebknecht

No Compromise – No Political Trading (1899)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Social Democracy must remain for itself, must seek for and generate its power within itself. Every power outside of our…" by Wilhelm Liebknecht?

Wilhelm Liebknecht 53

German socialist politician 1826–1900

Related quotes

“In order for us to liberate the energy of our strength, our weakness must first have a chance to reveal itself.”

Paulo Coelho book The Witch of Portobello

Source: The Witch of Portobello

“The subject must distinguish itself through opposition from the rational being, which it has assumed outside of itself. The subject has posited itself as one, which contains in itself the last ground of something that is in it, (for this is the condition of Egohood, or of Rationality generally;) but it has also posited a being outside of itself, as the last ground of this something in it. It is to have the power of distinguishing itself from this other being; and this is, under our presupposition, possible only, if the subject can distinguish in that given something how far the ground of this something lies in itself and how far it lies outside of itself.”

Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) German philosopher

Source: The Science of Rights 1796, P. 63

“We must establish the ecological bounds on human activity. We must tackle the systemic inequalities which undermine social progress. We must fix the illiterate economics of relentless growth […] A different economics is achievable. A better and fairer social logic lies within our grasp.”

Tim Jackson book Prosperity Without Growth

Prosperity Without Growth: Foundations for the Economy of Tomorrow, 2017 edition, Routledge, page 227.
Prosperity Without Growth

“Every process which arises from our physical being and is related to it, is an event which lies outside of our volition. Every social process, however, arises from human intentions and human goal setting and occurs within the limits of our volition.”

Rudolf Rocker book Nationalism and Culture

Source: Nationalism and Culture (1937), Ch. 1 "The Insufficiency of Economic Materialism"
Context: Every process which arises from our physical being and is related to it, is an event which lies outside of our volition. Every social process, however, arises from human intentions and human goal setting and occurs within the limits of our volition. Consequently, it is not subject to the concept of natural necessity. … We are here stating no prejudiced opinion, but merely an established fact. Every result of human purposiveness is of indisputable importance for man's social existence, but we should stop regarding social processes as deterministic manifestations of a necessary course of events. Such a view can only lead to the most erroneous conclusions and contribute to a fatal confusion in our understanding of historical events.
It is doubtless the task of the historian to trace the inner connection of historical events and to make clear their causes and effects, but he must not forget that these connections are of a sort quite different from those of natural physical events and must therefore have quite a different valuation.

“We cannot bank our hopes on possibilities. We must put our trust in ourselves, in our capabilities and efforts and strength and preparations not only for our success but even to avoid our own defeat.”

Aung San (1915–1947) Burmese revolutionary leader

Presidential address to the AFPFL Supreme Council Session (August 1946)

“Social science is itself part of the social experience it seeks to interpret and explain.”

William H. McNeill (1917–2016) Canadian historian

Discrepancies among the Social Sciences (1981)

“The only path to take to placate violence is dialogue. Only then will we be able to isolate these extremist groups and become a tolerant country. Now we must seek to be close to our small community and give ourselves strength and encouragement.”

Basile Georges Casmoussa (1938) Catholic bishop

Anti-Christian attacks in Iraq part of brutal strategy, says archbishop https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/17865/anti-christian-attacks-in-iraq-part-of-brutal-strategy-says-archbishop (30 November 2009)

“First, America must have a strong defense. We must never forget that our national defense is about much more than the land within our borders. Just as we fought and conquered totalitarianism during World War Two — just as we fought and conquered communism during the Cold War — we are defending the idea of freedom itself.”

Al Gore (1948) 45th Vice President of the United States

Quotes, IPI speech (2000)

“Every weakness contains within itself a strength.”

Shūsaku Endō (1923–1996) author from Japan

“If it is a question of seeking formal contradictions, then obviously we must do so on the side of the White Terror, which is the weapon of classes which consider themselves “Christian,” patronize idealist philosophy, and are firmly convinced that the individuality (their own) is an end-in-itself. As for us, we were never concerned with the Kantian-priestly and vegetarian-Quaker prattle about the “sacredness of human life.” We were revolutionaries in opposition, and have remained revolutionaries in power. To make the individual sacred we must destroy the social order which crucifies him. And this problem can only be solved by blood and iron.”

Leon Trotsky book Terrorism and Communism

Source: Terrorism and Communism (1920), Ch. 4

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Wilhelm Liebknecht 53

Related quotes

Related topics