Joseph Stalin

Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas?

The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.

A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.

Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs.

The only real power comes from a bullet.

Quantity has a quality all its own.

The Pope? How many divisions has he got?

Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.

It is not the people who vote that count. It is the people who count the votes.

When there is a person, there is a problem. When there is no person, there is no problem.

We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us.

The writer is the engineer of the human soul.

To choose one's victims, to prepare one's plans minutely, to slake an implacable vengeance, and then to go to bed... there is nothing sweeter in the world.

The only way to get rid of a problem is to get rid of the person who has it.

There is no justice in the world, only power.

The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.

I believe in one thing only, the power of human will.

We don't need a party of chatterboxes. We need a party of action.

The only way to settle accounts with the past is to build a new future.

The greatest joy in life is to defeat your enemies, to see them pursued, to seize their possessions, to ride their horses, and to make their wives and daughters weep.