Quotes by Karl Liebknecht

About Karl Liebknecht:

 Karl Liebknecht is best known for his opposition to World War I in the Reichstag and his role in the Spartacist uprising of 1919. The uprising was crushed by the social democrat government and the Freikorps (paramilitary units formed of World War I veterans). Liebknecht and Luxemburg were killed.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

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

Karl Liebknecht

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

Karl Liebknecht

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

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

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

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

Karl Liebknecht

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

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

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

Karl Liebknecht

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

Karl Liebknecht

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

Karl Liebknecht

For capitalism, war and peace are business and nothing but business.

Karl Liebknecht

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

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

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

Karl Liebknecht

The aim of my life is the overthrow of monarchy.

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

Author Bio

  • NameKarl Liebknecht
  • DescriptionGerman socialist and a co-founder of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany
  • BornJanuary 13, 1871
  • DiedJanuary 15, 1919
  • CountryGermany; German Empire
  • ProfessionPolitician; Lawyer; Revolutionary