Quotes by

Karl Marx

Mankind always sets itself only such tasks as it can solve; since, looking at the matter more closely, we will always find that the task itself arises only when the material conditions necessary for its solution already exist or are at least in the process of formation. – Karl Marx

Machines were, it may be said, the weapon employed by the capitalists to quell the revolt of specialized labor. – Karl Marx

A commodity appears at first sight an extremely obvious, trivial thing. But its analysis brings out that it is a very strange thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties. – Karl Marx

The development of civilization and industry in general has always shown itself so active in the destruction of forests that everything that has been done for their conservation and production is completely insignificant in comparison. – Karl Marx

Colonial system, public debts, heavy taxes, protection, commercial wars, etc., these offshoots of the period of manufacture swell to gigantic proportions during the period of infancy of large-scale industry. The birth of the latter is celebrated by a vast, Hero-like slaughter of the innocents. – Karl Marx

From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need. – Karl Marx

We should not say that one mans hour is worth another mans hour, but rather that one man during an hour is worth just as much as another man during an hour. Time is everything, man is nothing: he is at the most times carcass. – Karl Marx

Mens ideas are the most direct emanations of their material state. – Karl Marx

Capitalist production, therefore, develops technology, and the combining together of various processes into a social whole, only by sapping the original sources of all wealth – the soil and the labourer. – Karl Marx

In a higher phase of communist society… only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be fully left behind and society inscribe on its banners: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. – Karl Marx

In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality. – Karl Marx

Society does not consist of individuals but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand. – Karl Marx

The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e., the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. – Karl Marx

The human being is in the most literal sense a political animal, not merely a gregarious animal, but an animal which can individuate itself only in the midst of society. – Karl Marx

The product of mental labor – science – always stands far below its value, because the labor-time necessary to reproduce it has no relation at all to the labor-time required for its original production. – Karl Marx

Natural science will in time incorporate into itself the science of man, just as the science of man will incorporate into itself natural science: there will be one science. – Karl Marx

Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand. – Karl Marx

Religion is the opium of the masses. – Karl Marx

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. – Karl Marx

The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism. – Karl Marx