Karl Marx Quotes

“Calvin:"It says here that 'religion is the opiate of the masses.'...what do you suppose that means?"
Television: "...it means that Karl Marx hadn't seen anything yet”
― Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages, 1985-1995: An Exhibition Catalogue

“The world would not be in such a snarl, had Marx been Groucho instead of Karl.”
― Irving Berlin

“Religion used to be the opium of the people. To those suffering humiliation, pain, illness, and serfdom, religion promised the reward of an after life. But now, we are witnessing a transformation, a true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, we are not going to be judged.”
― Czesław Miłosz

“Here's your first problem," he said, pointing at a sentence. "'Religion is the opium of the people.' Well, I don't know about people, but I think you'll find that the opium of pirates is actual opium.”
― Gideon Defoe, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists

“What does Karl Marx put on his pasta? Communist Manipesto!”
― Steven Colbert

“The 'Manifesto' being our joint production, I consider myself bound to state that the fundamental proposition which forms its nucleus belongs to Marx. That proposition is: that in every historical epoch, the prevailing mode of economic production and exchange, and the social organization necessarily following from it, form the basis upon which is built up, and from which alone can be explained, the political and intellectual history of that epoch; that consequently the whole history of mankind (since the dissolution of primitive tribal society, holding land in common ownership) has been a history of class struggles, contests between exploiting and exploited, ruling and oppressed classes; that the history of these class struggles forms a series of evolution in which, nowadays, a stage has been reached where the exploited and the oppressed class—the proletariat—cannot attain its emancipation from the sway of the exploiting and ruling class—the bourgeoisie—without, at the same time, and once for all, emancipating society at large from all exploitation, oppression, class distinctions and class struggles.

This proposition, which, in my opinion, is destined to do for history what Darwin's theory has done for biology, we, both of us, had been gradually approaching for some years before 1845.”
― Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto

“Or I remember in 1987, when there was a big hoopla about the bicentennial of the Constitution, the Boston Globe published one of my favorite polls, in which they gave people little slogans and said, "Guess which ones are in the Constitution." Of course, nobody knows what's in the Constitution, because everybody forgot what they learned in third grade, and probably they didn't pay any attention to it then anyway―so what the question really was asking is, "What is such an obvious truism that it must be in the Constitution?" Well, one of the suggestions was, "What about 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs'?" [a slogan from Karl Marx]. Half the American population thinks that's in the Constitution, because it's such an obvious truth―it's so obviously true that it must be in the Constitution, where else could it come from?”
― Noam Chomsky, Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky

“I saw exactly one picture of Marx and one of Lenin in my whole stay, but it's been a long time since ideology had anything to do with it. Not without cunning, Fat Man and Little Boy gradually mutated the whole state belief system into a debased form of Confucianism, in which traditional ancestor worship and respect for order become blended with extreme nationalism and xenophobia. Near the southernmost city of Kaesong, captured by the North in 1951, I was taken to see the beautifully preserved tombs of King and Queen Kongmin. Their significance in F.M.-L.B. cosmology is that they reigned over a then unified Korea in the 14th century, and that they were Confucian and dynastic and left many lavish memorials to themselves. The tombs are built on one hillside, and legend has it that the king sent one of his courtiers to pick the site. Second-guessing his underling, he then climbed the opposite hill. He gave instructions that if the chosen site did not please him he would wave his white handkerchief. On this signal, the courtier was to be slain. The king actually found that the site was ideal. But it was a warm day and he forgetfully mopped his brow with the white handkerchief. On coming downhill he was confronted with the courtier's fresh cadaver and exclaimed, 'Oh dear.' And ever since, my escorts told me, the opposite peak has been known as 'Oh Dear Hill.'

I thought this was a perfect illustration of the caprice and cruelty of absolute leadership, and began to phrase a little pun about Kim Jong Il being the 'Oh Dear Leader,' but it died on my lips.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays

“The less you eat, drink and buy books; the less you go to the theatre, the dance hall, the public house; the less you think, love, theorise, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you save – the greater becomes your treasure which neither moths nor rust will devour – your capital. The less you are, the less you express your own life, the more you have, i.e., the greater is your alienated life, the greater is the store of your estranged being.”
― Karl Marx

“As a practical revolutionary Marx was active only for about 12 years (1848-1852, 1864-1872), and
was not particularly successful; his role was primarily that of a theorist, an advocate of ideas. Yet it has sometimes been said that Marx exercised a decisive influence on the history of the 20th century. In reality, the people who exercised the decisive influence were the men of action (Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Mao, Castro, etc.) who organized revolutions in the name
of Marxism. And these men, while calling themselves Marxists, never hesitated to set Marx's theories aside when "objective" circumstances made it advisable for them to do so. Moreover, the societies that resulted from their revolutions resembled the kind of society envisioned by Marx only insofar as they were in a general way socialistic.”
― Theodore J. Kaczynski, Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How

“manusia tidak hanya menerima kodrat pada umumnya" tetapi juga "kodrat manusia sebagai yang diubah pada tiap babakan sejarah" dan "sebuah transformasi kodrat manusia yang terus menerus" - Karl Marx”
― Kurnia Putra, Eling & Meling; Sejumlah Esai Dalam Kongres Ki Hadjar Dewantara

“they see in poverty nothing but poverty, without seeing in it the revolutionary, subversive side, which will overthrow the old society.”
― Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy

“Una assenza momentanea fa bene, perché quando si è presenti le cose sembrano troppo uguali per distinguerle. Persino le torri da vicino hanno proporzioni nanesche, mentre le cose piccole e quotidiane, considerate da vicino, crescono fin troppo. Così è per le passioni. Piccole abitudini le quali con la vicinanza che esse impongono assumono forma appassionata, scompaiono non appena il loro oggetto immediato è sottratto alla vista. Grandi passioni che per la vicinanza del loro oggetto assumono la forma di piccole abitudini, crescono e raggiungono di nuovo la loro proporzione naturale per l'effetto magico della lontananza. Così è con il mio amore. Basta che tu mi sia allontanata solo dal sogno e io so immediatamente che il tempo è servito al mio amore per ciò a cui servono il sole e la pioggia alle piante, per crescere. Il mio amore, appena sei lontana, appare per ciò che è, un gigante in cui si concentra tutta l'energia del mio spirito e tutto il carattere del mio cuore.
Io mi sento di nuovo un uomo, perché sento una grande passione, e la molteplicità in cui lo studio e la cultura moderna ci impigliano, e lo scetticismo con cui necessariamente siamo portati a criticare tutte le impressioni soggettive e oggettive, sono fatti apposta per renderci piccoli e deboli e lamentosi e irrisoluti. Ma l'amore non per l'uomo di Feuerbach, non per il metabolismo di Moleschott, non per il proletariato, bensì l'amore per te, fa dell'uomo nuovamente un uomo.”
― Karl Marx

“The Communist Party and Karl Marx were names I had picked up on since coming to Blantyre, so I read what I could on the subject. The very last English essay I wrote in May 1961, before leaving school, was a biographical sketch of Karl Marx together with a synopsis of The Communist Manifesto, outlining Marx and Frederick Engels’s views of revolution as a consequence of the class struggle.”
― Stuart Christie, My Granny Made Me an Anarchist. The Christie File: Part 1, 1946 - 1964

“As a practical revolutionary Marx was active only for about 12 years (1848-1852, 1864-1872), and
was not particularly successful; his role was primarily that of a theorist, an advocate of ideas. Yet it has sometimes been said that Marx exercised a decisive influence on the history of the 20th century. In reality, the people who exercised the decisive influence were the men of action (Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Mao, Castro, etc.) who organized revolutions in the name of Marxism. And these men, while calling themselves Marxists, never hesitated to set Marx's theories aside when "objective" circumstances made it advisable for them to do so. Moreover, the societies that resulted from their revolutions resembled the kind of society envisioned by Marx only insofar as they were in a general way socialistic.”
― Theodore J. Kaczynski

“Onder invloed van het marxisme ontstond in de wereldgeschiedenis ook nog een zesde vorm van arbeidsdeling, de nomisch technische arbeidsverdeling. Die werd voor het eerst in de Sovjet-Unie ingevoerd in 1917 en verdween er met de Val van de Muur in 1989. De werkende bevolking werd er wijsgemaakt dat het een vorm van nomische arbeidsverdeling was die spontaan was ontstaan en niet door de overheid werd afgedwongen. Maar in werkelijkheid ging het niet om communisme, wel integendeel om staatskapitalisme. Op papier heerst er nog steeds communisme in de Volksrepubliek China, maar dat komt dan enkel maar omdat papier er zeer gewillig is (geen wonder, want het papier werd juist in China uitgevonden). Harde vormen van communisme zijn na de Val van de Muur nog een korte tijd blijven voortbestaan in Cuba en in Albanië, maar zijn ondertussen ook daar verdwenen. Enkel in het totaal geïsoleerde Noord-Korea is de nomisch technische arbeidsverdeling tot op vandaag blijven voortbestaan. Tot een afsterven van de staat, zoals Marx voorspelde, heeft het zeker niet geleid, wel tot een verpletterend staatsapparaat gecontroleerd door de gewetenloze machtsclique rond de vereerde Leider.”
― Jean Pierre Van Rossem, Postmoderniteit: Onzekerheid & Onveiligheid

“The term ‘utopian socialism’ was used by Marx and Engels as a way of dismissing a large number of their rivals, and denigrating their ideas in comparison with their own ‘scientific socialism’. Despite this, it does describe one strain of socialism in the early nineteenth century. Unlike the Communists, the utopians were generally not workers and initially did not have a close connection to working-class movements. They were also considerably less interested in seizing the central state. Instead, they focused their efforts on fashioning small, experimental communities, and presented a vision of the ideal society that was more appealing to many than the Spartan egalitarianism of the Babouvists. And rather than enforcing Weitling’s Christian morality, they sought to challenge what they saw as the oppressive doctrine of original sin on which Christianity was founded. Mankind, they argued, was naturally altruistic and cooperative, and right-minded education would permit these qualities to predominate. They were particularly hostile to what they saw as the grim work ethic of the new industrial capitalism, which was so closely associated with Christian, and particularly Protestant, ideas of the time. The factory system and the division of labour transformed men into machines and life into joyless drudgery. Society had to be organized so that everybody in the community could be creative and develop their individuality. Their vision was therefore Romantic in spirit. Though unlike the Jacobins, whose Romanticism was one of the self-sacrificing heroism of the soldier, theirs extolled the self-expression and self-realization of the artist.”
― David Priestland, The Red Flag: A History of Communism

“...the following collective result. in which surplus capital and surplus labor exist side by side and there seems to be absolutely no way to put them together to do useful things.”
― David Harvey

“Your name is your own no matter what you do”
― N/A

“Guy: „Hey, isn't that Karl up there?“
Mr. Kyu: „You know Marx? Very good.“
Guy: „A bit... Doesn't everybody?“
Mr. Kyu: „Oh no, not many capitalists do.“
Guy: „Really.”
― Guy Delisle, Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea

“To be a capitalist, is to have not only a purely personal, but a social, status in production. Capital is a collective product, and only by the united action of many members, nay, in the last resort, only by the united action of all members of society, can it be set in motion. Capital is, therefore, not a personal, it is a social power.”
― Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels [Vintage library classics Edition]

“நமக்கு கிடைத்த இந்த இயற்கையை நாம் மேலும் செழுமையாக்கி நமது அடுத்த தலைமுறைக்குக் ஒப்படைக்க வேண்டும்!”
― -மார்க்ஸ் (மூலதனம்)

“Revolutionary Islam is linked to the Koran, to be sure, just as Stalinism and Maoism were linked to Das Kapital, but to explain the horrors of China's man-made famines or the Soviet gulag solely by invoking the writings of Karl Marx would be to miss the main point. Messianic violence can attach itself to any creed.”
― Ian Buruma, Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance

“In 1944, Ram Swarup started the "Changers' Club", alluding to Karl Marx's dictum that philosophers have interpreted the world instead of changing it.”
― Koenraad Elst, Decolonizing the Hindu mind: Ideological development of Hindu revivalism

“Det er ikke nok at filosofer har fortolket verden på forskjellige vis, poenget er å forandre den, insisterte den unge Marx. Endringer oppnås ikke ved å teoretisere over tingenes tilstand, men gjennom kritisk virksomhet. Ved å avsløre.”
― Andreas Hardhaug Olsen, Kateterprofetenes opprør: Arven fra Det nye venstre, og hvordan vår tids vekkelse kritiserer Vesten i stykker

“At length the captain and his bearer arrived at a massive palatial building, over the porch of which the usual legend of equality, brotherhood, and expunged liberty was supplemented by the mysterious motto,— THE STATE IS THE TRUE GOD, AND KARL MARX IS HIS PROPHET.

This was the Temple of the State.”
― James Howard Bridge, A Fortnight in Heaven. an Unconventional Romance

“There is no God, and Karl Marx is his prophet. (from Socialism and the Ethics of Jesus, 1912)”
― Henry Vedder

“They are parts of a single, overall, modern thought-world. According to the customary image socialists bear with them, Nationalism is the Mr. Hyde of that world. He is the Id of modernity, our revived and delirious archaism, the seductive, yet dangerous fellow from the forests who Marx pilloried back in 1843. 'Germano-maniacs' he called them, 'seeking our history of freedom beyond our history, in the primeval 'Teutonic forests'. Alas, the forests are not so easily disposed of as that, either in Germany or elsewhere. Nor are nationalists allowed to forget the fact. But what about Dr. Jekyll? This is the real question I am putting here, and it is all too rarely posed. We - 'on the left' - are assumed to be on his side. We disregard his oddities. He is a strangely Protestant figure, forever tensed up in an irreproachable piety punctuated with terrible nervous ticks. The slightest forest odour sets his forefinger wagging. Though he takes two baths a day to preserve his demeanour and sense of smell, the world remains permanenly unstatisfactory. This must be -one can hardly help feeling - because there is something unsatisfactory inside him somewhere, of which he may be only obscurely conscious.”
― Tom Nairn, Faces of Nationalism: Janus Revisited

“Capitalism, as Marx observed—with surprising admiration for its dynamism—never promised stability, and it’s been a generation since blue-chip companies like IBM offered their white-collar workers a job for life. As the best-seller Who Moved My Cheese advises, dislocated professionals must learn to adapt to new flavors of cheese as the old ones are taken away. But when skilled and experienced people routinely find their skills unwanted and their experience discounted, then something has happened that cuts deep into the very social contract that holds us together.”
― Barbara Ehrenreich, Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream

“There are the chastening examples of John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx (both of whom I have discussed in Orientalism), two thinkers known doctrinally to be opponents of injustice and oppression. Yet both of them seemed to have believed that such ideas as liberty, representative government and individual happiness must not be applied in the orient for reasons that today we would call racist.”
― Edward W. Said, The Question of Palestine