Robert Conquest

“Generally speaking, everybody is right-wing on the subjects he knows about.”

“The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.”

“Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.”

“The combination of the ideologically-driven ruler and the terrorist-bureaucratic state has proved to be the most lethal form of governance ever devised.”

“The dead of the Great Terror were not ‘cost’ of industrialisation. They were not ‘mistakes’. They were the victims of a theory.”

“Facts, it seems, are not only stubborn things, but also subversive.”

“The view that all is relative is a proposition to which, on its own terms, its claimants can hardly ask us to assent.”

“History can be fascist. Or, rather, it can be used by fascists.”

“In a 'developed' country, the only thing that is not for sale is the vote.”

“There is no way of writing ‘final’ history. It will always be revised.”

“We are all a great deal more ignorant than we think we are.”