Liebknecht Quotes & Sayings

In capitalist history, invasion and class struggle are not opposites, as the official legend would have us believe, but one is the means and the expression of the other. — Karl Liebknecht

The basic law of capitalism is you or I, not both you and I. — Karl Liebknecht

This republic represents the greatest basis for that universal socialist order, the creation of which is at the present time the historic task of the International Proletariat. — Karl Liebknecht

Like a cyclone, imperialism spins across the globe; militarism crushes peoples and sucks their blood like a vampire. — Karl Liebknecht

Passive fatalism can never be the role of a revolutionary party, like the Social Democracy. — Karl Liebknecht

But Socialism, alone, can bring self-determination of their peoples. — Karl Liebknecht

Consider well this fact: As long as the German people does not arise and use force directed by its own will, the assassination of the people will continue. — Karl Liebknecht

International socialism recognizes the right of free independent nations, with equal rights. — Karl Liebknecht

The aim of my life is the overthrow of monarchy. — Karl Liebknecht

Incendiary capitalism is carrying its out evil works more dangerously than ever, and is doing so in the increasingly dangerous neighborhood of the powder kegs that are the great European military powers. — Karl Liebknecht

Long live the liberation of the workers off all countries from the infernal chasm of war, exploitation and slavery! — Karl Liebknecht

Workers, comrades, and you, women of the people, let not this festival of May, the second during the war, pass without protest against the Imperialist Slaughter. — Karl Liebknecht

Just as invasion is the true and tried weapon in the hands of capital against the class struggle, so on the other hand the fearless pursuit of the class struggle has always proven the most effective preventative of foreign invasions. — Karl Liebknecht

At the crash of economic collapse of which the rumblings can already be heard, the sleeping soldiers of the proletariat will awake as at the fanfare of the Last Judgment and the corpses of the victims of the struggle will arise and demand an accounting from those who are loaded down with curses. — Karl Liebknecht

At 8 o'clock in the morning a dense throng of workers - almost 10,000 - assembled in the square, which the police had already occupied well ahead of time. Karl Liebknecht's voice then rang out: 'Down with the War! Down with the Government!' The police immediately rushed at him. For the first time since the beginning of the war open resistance to it had appeared on the streets of the capital. The ice was broken. — Paul Frolich

Capitalism is war; socialism is peace. — Karl Liebknecht

The failure of the Russian Socialist Republic will be the defeat of the proletariat of the whole world. — Karl Liebknecht

The new Germany has the unquestionable right to hold its tongue between its teeth. — Karl Liebknecht

Class struggle: external peace, international solidarity, peace among peoples. This is the sacred slogan of international socialist democracy that liberates nations. — Karl Liebknecht

Imperialism is not the creation of any one or any one group of states. — Karl Liebknecht

To the socialist no nation is free whose national existence is based upon the enslavement of another people, for to him colonial peoples, too, are peoples, and, as such, parts of the national state. — Karl Liebknecht

Yes, Socialists should defend their country in great historical crises. — Karl Liebknecht

When Marx got into a difficult position he would get angry and losing a game would cause him to fly into a rage. — Wilhelm Liebknecht

Through this experience we have been warned - learn everything, don't forget anything! — Karl Liebknecht

The Russian revolution was to an unprecedented degree the cause of the proletariat of the whole world becoming more revolutionary. — Karl Liebknecht

In the present imperialistic milieu there can be no wars of national self-defense. — Karl Liebknecht

For capitalism, war and peace are business and nothing but business. — Karl Liebknecht