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In "The Big Lebowski", the main character, the Dude, tries, and fails, to deliver a quote from Lenin:

It's like Lenin said, you look for the person who will benefit... And, uh... You know, you'll, uh... You know what I mean.

What is the correct Lenin quote that he thinks of?

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He probably meant this Lenin text:

There is a Latin tag, cui prodest? Meaning, “who stands to gain?” When it is not immediately apparent which political or social groups, forces or alignments advocate certain proposals, measures, etc., one should always ask: “Who stands to gain?” [...]

In politics it is not so important who directly advocates particular views. What is important is who stands to gain from these views, proposals, measures.

The phrase cui prodest \ cui bono ("To whose benefit?") was famously used by Cicero, who attributed it to Lucius Cassius. More about the phrase can be found here.

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  • 6
    [marking it eight]
    – vonPetrushev
    Jan 26, 2015 at 0:32
  • 1
    No problem. Enjoy your world of pain ;)
    – Walt
    Jan 26, 2015 at 11:02
  • Yeah, well.. that's just your opinion, man..
    – Melllvar
    Apr 5, 2018 at 20:13
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https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/apr/11.htm

Here is a link to the Pravda article that V.I. Lenin wrote.

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    Thank you for contributing. Links may not last forever. It's usually good practice to also answer directly in the text of the answer block, and use the link as additional resources. I hope you like it here.
    – John
    Apr 10, 2017 at 1:06

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