Quotes from book
Reflections on Violence

Reflections on Violence
Georges Sorel Original title Réflexions sur la violence (French, 1908)

Reflections on Violence , published in 1908, is a book by the French revolutionary syndicalist Georges Sorel on class struggle and revolution. Sorel is known for his theory that political revolution depends on the proletariat organizing violent uprisings and strikes to institute syndicalism, an economic system in which syndicats truly represent the needs of the working class.One of Sorel's most controversial claims was that violence could save the world from "barbarism". He equated violence with life, creativity, and virtue.In this book, he contends that myths are important as "expressions of will to act". He also supports the creation of an economic system run by and for the interests of producers rather than consumers. His ideas were influenced by various other philosophical writers, including Giambattista Vico, Blaise Pascal, Ernest Renan, Friedrich Nietzsche, Eduard von Hartmann, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, John Henry Newman, Karl Marx, and Alexis de Tocqueville.

Georges Sorel photo

“It is very difficult to understand proletarian violence as long as we try to think in terms of the ideas disseminated by bourgeois philosophy; according to this philosophy, violence is a relic of barbarism which is bound to disappear under the progress of enlightenment.”

Georges Sorel book Reflections on Violence

Source: Reflections on Violence (1908), p. 65

Georges Sorel photo

“As the State formerly played a most important part in the revolutions that abolished the old economic systems, so it must again be the State that should abolish capitalism.”

Georges Sorel book Reflections on Violence

Source: Reflections on Violence (1908), p. 170

Georges Sorel photo

“Revolutionary syndicalism keeps alive the desire to strike in the masses and only prospers when important strikes, accompanied by violence, take place.”

Georges Sorel book Reflections on Violence

Source: Reflections on Violence (1908), p. 39

Georges Sorel photo

“We have the right to conclude from this that syndicalist violence, perpetrated in the course of strikes by proletarians who desire the overthrow of the State, must not be confused with the acts of savagery which the superstition of the State suggested to the revolutionaries of [17]93 when they had power in their hands and were able to oppress the conquered – following the principles which they had received from the Church and from the monarchy.”

Georges Sorel book Reflections on Violence

Source: Reflections on Violence (1908), p. 108

Georges Sorel photo

“And so I am not concerned to justify the perpetrators of violence but to enquire into the function of the violence of the working classes in contemporary socialism.”

Georges Sorel book Reflections on Violence

Source: Reflections on Violence (1908), p. 42

Georges Sorel photo

“Existing social conditions favour the production of an infinite number of acts of violence and there has been no hesitation in urging the workers not to refrain from brutality when this might do them service.”

Georges Sorel book Reflections on Violence

Source: Reflections on Violence (1908), p. 183

Georges Sorel photo

“Proletarian violence, carried on as a pure and simple manifestation of the sentiment of class struggle, appears thus as a very fine and heroic thing; it is at the service of the immemorial interests of civilization; it is not perhaps the most appropriate method of obtaining immediate material advantages, but it may save the world from barbarism.”

Georges Sorel book Reflections on Violence

Source: Reflections on Violence (1908), p. 85

Georges Sorel photo

“We must not always attach too much importance to violent attacks on the bourgeoisie; they may be motivated by the desire to reform and to perfect capitalism.”

Georges Sorel book Reflections on Violence

Source: Reflections on Violence (1908), p. 125

Georges Sorel photo

“Thus proletarian violence has become an essential factor in Marxism. Let us add once more that, if properly conducted, it will have the result of suppressing parliamentary socialism, which will no longer be able to pose as the leader of the working classes and as the guardian of order.”

Georges Sorel book Reflections on Violence

Source: Reflections on Violence (1908), p. 79

Georges Sorel photo

“[Myths] are not descriptions of things, but expressions of a determination to act… A myth cannot be refuted since it is, at bottom, identical with the convictions of a group, being the expression of these convictions in the language of movement.”

Georges Sorel book Reflections on Violence

Source: Reflections on Violence (1908), p. 28-29 (Letter to Daniel Halevy)

Georges Sorel photo

“It seems that it was the Jews who had entered the has not been a happy one.”

Georges Sorel book Reflections on Violence

Source: Reflections on Violence (1908), p. 290

Georges Sorel photo

“Everyone explains that discussions about Socialism are exceedingly obscure; this obscurity is due, to a large extent, to the fact that contemporary socialists use a terminology which no longer corresponds to their ideas.”

Georges Sorel book Reflections on Violence

Source: Reflections on Violence (1908), p. 47

Georges Sorel photo

“Engels feared that the Socialists, in order to gain adherents in the electoral struggles rapidly, would make promises which were contrary to Marxist doctrine. The antisemites told the peasants and the small shopkeepers that they would protect them from the development of capitalism. Engels thought that an imitation of this procedure would be dangerous, since, in his opinion, the social revolution could only be realised when capitalism had almost completely destroyed the small proprietors and small industries; if the Socialists, then, endeavoured to hinder this evolution, they would ultimately compromise their own cause.”

Georges Sorel book Reflections on Violence

Reflections on Violence, London: UK, George Allen & Unwin, (reprinted in Saxony 1925) p. 180

Georges Sorel photo

“It seems that it was the Jews who had entered the revolutionary movement who are primarily responsible for the terroristic measures blamed upon the bolsheviks.”

Georges Sorel book Reflections on Violence

Source: Reflections on Violence (1908), p. 290
Context: This hypothesis appears to me to be all the more reasonable given that the intervention of the Jews in the Hungarian Soviet Republic has not been a happy one.

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