His [Sufi mystic Shams’] stern but gentle manner and his preachings of love arouse strong reactions, ranging from murderous hostility on the part of Islamic zealots to almost total identification by Rumi, from respect and devotion by outcasts whom he has consoled and aided to the one kind of love he cannot allow himself, the passionate, carnal kind.

Today, Rosa Luxemburg’s faith in the ultimate success of highly class-conscious proletariat creating a revolution by their mass action appears as a grave misreading of the real class dynamics, where the so-called working masses are divided among innumerable trades, working conditions, and local aspirations.To me, it seems that the gentle and much-loved (within the SPD) Eduard Bernstein had the better argument:… But we can’t deny that the ever brilliant, provocative Rosa Luxemburg is much more exciting to read. One of her German comrades warned the others to beware of her in debate, because she was blitzgescheit, lightningbolt-clever. And very courageous.