Ajey N

“Aristotle was the product of a slave society. The ruling class of the ancient world despised manual labor as an activity fit only for their slaves. Aristotle’s image of the good man is that of a slave owner who, free from the need to work for his living, is able to pursue the higher things of the mind. The same separation of mental and manual labor, itself a reflection of the class societies in which they lived, was made by all the great bourgeois philosophers, from Descartes to Hegel. All treated the life of the mind as the only important thing about human beings, and all assumed that someone else would do the work to provide them with the sordid material goods—food, clothing, lodging—that they needed in order to pursue the truth.”
― Alex Callinicos, The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx

“We cannot prove that privileged owe something to the rest, any more than we can prove that theft is wrong.”
― Jean Drèze, Sense And Solidarity - Jholawala Economics for Everyone

“Got to make a living' is a rationalization we tell ourselves to do things without integrity.”
― Anand Giridharadas, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World

“Saint-Simon was aware of the role of class struggle in history. Thus he divided contemporary French society into the industriels and the oisifs—those who worked, and the rich parasites who lived off their labor.”
― Alex Callinicos, The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx