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Change The Economic Base And You Will Change Human Beings.
-Karl Marx
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Change The Economic Base

Karl Marx
...
Change The Economic Base And You Will Change Human Beings.

Understanding the Quote: "change the economic base and you will change human beings...."

This quote by Karl Marx reflects deeply on the theme of economic. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Economic, Humans, Human Beings, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Karl Marx interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Karl Marx

Karl Marx is celebrated for insightful thoughts on economic and humans. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Economic
Humans
Human Beings
More From Karl Marx
Last Words Are For Those Fools Who Believe They Have Not Yet Said Enough.
Believe
Lasts
Fool
In Proportion As The Exploitation Of One Individual By Another Is Put An End To, The Exploitation Of One Nation By Another Will Also Be Put An End To. In Proportion As The Antagonism Between Classes Within The Nation Vanishes, The Hostility Of One Nation To Another Will Come To An End.
Class
Individual
Antagonism
As, In Religion, Man Is Governed By The Products Of His Own Brain, So In Capitalistic Production, He Is Governed By The Products Of His Own Hand.
Men
Hands
Brain
All Our Inventions Have Endowed Material Forces With Intellectual Life, And Degraded Human Life Into A Material Force.
Intellectual
Invention
Force
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.
Time
Science
Men
If Production Be Capitalistic In Form, So, Too, Will Be Reproduction.
Form
Reproduction
Ifs
But The More These Conscious Illusions Of The Ruling Class Are Shown To Be False And The Less They Satisfy Common Sense, The More Dogmatically They Are Asserted And The More Deceitful, Moralizing And Spiritual Becomes The Language Of Established Society.
Spiritual
Class
Common Sense
Hegel Remarks Somewhere That All Great, World-historical Facts And Personages Occur, As It Were, Twice. He Has Forgotten To Add: The First Time As Tragedy, The Second As Farce.
Historical
Tragedy
Farce
Change The Economic Base And You Will Change Human Beings.
Economic
Humans
Human Beings
A Nation That Enslaves Another Forges Its Own Chains.
Tyrants
Chains
Tyranny
Men Can See Nothing Around Them That Is Not Their Own Image; Everything Speaks To Them Of Themselves. Their Very Landscape Is Alive.
Men
Alive
Landscape
The Need Of A Constantly Expanding Market For Its Products Chases The Bourgeoisie Over The Entire Surface Of The Globe.
Bourgeoisie
Needs
Communist Manifesto
The Only Antidote To Mental Suffering Is Physical Pain.
Strength
Depression
Pain
...it Happens That Society Is Saved As Often As The Circle Of Its Ruling Class Is Narrowed, As Often As A More Exclusive Interest Asserts Itself Over The General. Every Demand For The Most Simple Bourgeois Financial Reform, For The Most Ordinary Liberalism, For The Most Commonplace Republicanism, For The Flattest Democracy Is Forthwith Punished As An Assault Upon Society And Is Branded As Socialism.
Simple
Class
Circles
Landlords, Like All Other Men, Love To Reap Where They Never Sowed.
Love
Philosophical
Men
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. The Class Which Has The Means Of Material Production At Its Disposal, Has Control At The Same Time Over The Means Of Mental Production, So That Thereby, Generally Speaking, The Ideas Of Those Who Lack The Means Of Mental Production Are Subject To It. The Ruling Ideas Are Nothing More Than The Ideal Expression Of The Dominant Material Relationships, The Dominant Material Relationships Grasped As Ideas.
Mean
Expression
Class
There Must Be Something Rotten In The Very Core Of A Social System Which Increases Its Wealth Without Diminishing Its Misery
Rotten
Misery
Wealth
An Increase In The Productivity Of Labour Means Nothing More Than That The Same Capital Creates The Same Value With Less Labour, Or That Less Labour Creates The Same Product With More Capital.
Mean
Increase
Labour
The Theory Of Communism May Be Summed Up In One Sentence: Abolish All Private Property.
Philosophy
Philosophical
Political
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.
Religious
Atheist
Heart
In The Domain Of Political Economy, Free Scientific Inquiry Meets Not Merely The Same Enemies As In All Other Domains. The Peculiar Nature Of The Material It Deals With, Summons As Foes Into The Field Of Battle The Most Violent, Mean And Malignant Passions Of The Human Breast, The Furies Of Private Interest.
Passion
Mean
Political
Labour Is ... Not The Only Source Of Material Wealth, I.e, Of The Use-values It Produces. As William Petty Says, Labour Is The Father Of Material Wealth, The Earth Is Its Mother.
Mother
Father
Use
Money Is The Alienated Essence Of Man's Work And Existence; This Essence Dominates Him And He Worships It.
Money
Men
Essence
Between Capitalist And Communist Society There Lies The Period Of The Revolutionary Transformation Of The One Into The Other. Corresponding To This Is Also A Political Transition Period In Which The State Can Be Nothing But The Revolutionary Dictatorship Of The Proletariat.
Change
Lying
Communication
When The Train Of History Hits A Curve, The Intellectuals Fall Off.
Fall
Curves
Train
[t]he Task Of Abolishing The Essence Of Jewry Is In Truth The Task Of Abolishing Jewry In Civil Society, Abolishing The Inhumanity Of Today's Practice Of Life, The Summit Of Which Is The Money System.
Essence
Practice
Tasks
Merely Quantitative Differences, Beyond A Certain Point, Pass Into Qualitative Changes.
Knowledge
Differences
Certain
So Long As The Product Is Sold, Everything Is Taking Its Regular Course From The Standpoint Of The Capitalist Producer.
Long
Producers
Capitalist
Since Only What Is Material Is Perceptible, Knowable, Nothing Is Known Of The Existence Of God.
Existence
Existence Of God
Materials
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.
Animal
Political
Politics
In The Various Stages Of Development Which The Struggle Of Working Class Against The Bourgeoisie Has To Pass Through, They Always And Everywhere Represent The Interests Of The Movement As A Whole.
Struggle
Class
Bourgeoisie
The History Of All Previous Societies Has Been The History Of Class Struggles.
Philosophical
Struggle
Class
As For Slavery, There Is No Need For Me To Speak Of Its Bad Aspects. The Only Thing Requiring Explanation Is The Good Side Of Slavery. I Do Not Mean Indirect Slavery, The Slavery Of Proletariat; I Mean Direct Slavery, The Slavery Of The Blacks In Surinam, In Brazil, In The Southern Regions Of North America. Direct Slavery Is As Much The Pivot Upon Which Our Present-day Industrialism Turns As Are Machinery, Credit, Etc. … Slavery Is Therefore An Economic Category Of Paramount Importance.
Mean
America
Southern
A Specter Is Haunting Europe - The Specter Of Communism.
Philosophical
Europe
Haunting
No Production Without A Need. But Consumption Reproduces The Need.
Needs
Consumption
Productions
Communism Is For Us Not A State Of Affairs Which Is To Be Established, An Ideal To Which Reality [will] Have To Adjust Itself. We Call Communism The Real Movement Which Abolishes The Present State Of Things. The Conditions Of This Movement Result From The Premises Now In Existence.
Real
Movement
Affair
There Is No Greater Stupidity Than For People...to Marry And So Surrender Themselves To The Small Miseries Of Domestic And Private Life.
People
Stupidity
Misery
The Abolition Of Religion As The Illusory Happiness Of The People Is The Demand For Their Real Happiness. To Call On Them To Give Up Their Illusions About Their Condition Is To Call On Them To Give Up A Condition That Requires Illusions. The Criticism Of Religion Is, Therefore, In Embryo, The Criticism Of That Vale Of Tears Of Which Religion Is The Halo.
Giving Up
Real
People
Under The Ideal Measure Of Values There Lurks The Hard Cash.
Cash
Social Consciousness
Ideals
Exchange Value Forms The Substance Of Money, And Exchange Value Is Wealth.
Substance
Wealth
Form
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.
Tasks
Matter
Projects
All Freed, Fast-frozen Relations, With Their Train Of Ancient And Venerable Prejudices And Opinions, Are Swept Away, All New-formed Ones Become Antiquated Before They Can Ossify. All That Is Solid Melts Into Air, All That Is Holy Is Profaned, And Man Is At Last Compelled To Face With Sober Senses, His Real Conditions Of Life, And His Relations With His Kind.
Real
Men
Air
The More The Division Of Labor And The Application Of Machinery Extend, The More Does Competition Extend Among The Workers, The More Do Their Wages Shrink Together.
Division Of Labor
Competition
Together
The More Powerful The Work, The More Powerless The Worker.
Powerful
Work
Workers
Every One Knows That There Are No Real Forests In England.the Deer In The Parks Of The Great Are Demurely Domestic Cattle, Fat As London Alderman.
Real
Parks
Deer
Wherever The Want Of Clothing Forced Them To It, The Human Race Made Clothes For Thousands Of Years, Without A Single Man Becoming A Tailor.
Men
Race
Years
Nature Is Man's Inorganic Body -- That Is To Say, Nature Insofar As It Is Not The Human Body. Man Lives From Nature -- I.e., Nature Is His Body -- And He Must Maintain A Continuing Dialogue With It Is He Is Not To Die. To Say That Man's Physical And Mental Life Is Linked To Nature Simply Means That Nature Is Linked To Itself, For Man Is A Part Of Nature.
Mean
Men
Body
The State Is Based On This Contradiction. It Is Based On The Contradiction Between Public And Private Life, Between Universal And Particular Interests. For This Reason, The State Must Confine Itself To Formal, Negative Activities.
Life
Negative
Reason
Nothing Is Easier Than To Give Christian Asceticism A Socialist Tinge.
Christian
Giving
Asceticism
Only In Community With Others Has Each Individual The Means Of Cultivating His Gifts In All Directions; Only In The Community, Therefore, Is Personal Freedom Possible.
Mean
Community
Individual
The Communists Disdain To Conceal Their Views And Aims. They Open Declare That Their Ends Can Be Attained Only By The Forcible Overthrow Of All Existing Social Conditions. Let The Ruling Classes Tremble At A Communistic Revolution. The Proletarians Have Nothing To Lose But Their Chains. They Have A World To Win. Working Men Of All Countries, Unite!
Country
Winning
Men
Since Labour Is Motion, Time Is Its Natural Measure.
Natural
Labour
As In Private Life One Differentiates Between What A Man Thinks And Says Of Himself And What He Really Is And Does, So In Historical Struggles One Must Still More Distinguish The Language And The Imaginary Aspirations Of Parties From Their Real Organism And Their Real Interests, Their Conception Of Themselves From Their Reality.
Life
Real
Party
The Unity Of The Bourgeoisie Can Be Shaken Only By The Unity Of The Proletariat.
Unity
Bourgeoisie
Proletariat
All I Know Is That I Am Not A Marxist.
Real
Government
Political
Under Private Property, Each Tries To Establish Over The Other An Alien Power, So As Thereby To Find Satisfaction Of His Own Selfish Need. The Increase In The Quantity Of Objects Is Therefore Accompanied By An Extension Of The Realm Of The Alien Powers To Which Man Is Subjected, And Every New Product Represents A New Potentiality Of Mutual Swindling And Mutual Plundering.
Selfish
Power
Men
Darwin's Book Is Very Important And Serves Me As A Basis In Natural Science For The Class Struggle In History. One Has To Put Up With The Crude English Method Of Development, Of Course. Despite All Deficiencies Not Only Is The Death-blow Dealt Here For The First Time To 'teleology' In The Natural Sciences, But Their Rational Meaning Is Empirically Explained.
Struggle
Book
Science
In Every Stockjobbing Swindle Every One Knows That Some Time Or Other The Crash Must Come, But Every One Hopes That It May Fall On The Head Of His Neighbor, After He Himself Has Caught The Shower Of Gold And Placed It In Safety.
Fall
Safety
Gold
A Spectre Is Haunting Europe-the Spectre Of Communism. All The Powers Of Old Europe Have Entered Into Holy Alliance To Exorcise This Spectre: Pope And Czar, Metternich And Guizot, French Radicals And German Police-spies. Where Is The Party In Opposition That Has Not Been Decried As Communistic By Its Opponents In Power? Where The Opposition That Has Not Hurled Back The Branding Reproach Of Communism, Against The More Advanced Opposition Parties, As Well As Against Its Reactionary Adversaries?
Party
Europe
Police
From The Outset, The Christian Was The Theorizing Jew, The Jew Is Therefore The Practical Christian, And The Practical Christian Has Become A Jew Again.
Christian
Judaism
Jew
The Communist Revolution Is The Most Radical Rupture With Traditional Property Relations; No Wonder That Its Development Involves The Most Radical Rupture With Traditional Ideas.
Ideas
Development
Rupture
...the Realm Of Freedom Does Not Commence Until The Point Is Passed Where Labor Under The Compulsion Of Necessity And Of External Utility Is Required.
Doe
Compulsion
Realms
Religion Is The Balm Of The People.
People
Crack-brained Meddling By The Authorities [can] Aggravate An Existing Crisis.
Cracks
Authority
Crisis
I Wish To Avenge Myself Against The One Who Rules Above.
Wish
Atheism
...the Very Cannibalism Of The Counterrevolution Will Convince The Nations That There Is Only One Way In Which The Murderous Death Agonies Of The Old Society And The Bloody Birth Throes Of The New Society Can Be Shortened, Simplified And Concentrated, And That Way Is Revolutionary Terror.
Communication
Agony
Way
Science And Democracy Are The Right And Left Hands Of What I'll Refer To As The Move From The Realm Of Necessity To The Realm Of Freedom.
Moving
Hands
Democracy
Money Does Not Arise By Convention, Any More Than The State Does. It Arises Out Of Exchange, And Arises Naturally Out Of Exchange; It Is A Product Of The Same.
Doe
Conventions
States
The Executive Of The Modern State Is But A Committee For Managing The Common Affairs Of The Whole Bourgeoisie.
Bourgeoisie
Common
Affair
The Monopoly Of Capital Becomes A Fetter Upon The Mode Of Production, Which Has Sprung Up And Flourished Along With, And Under It. Centralisation Of The Means Of Production And Socialisation Of Labour At Last Reach A Point Where They Become Incompatible With There Capitalist Integument. This Integument Is Burst Asunder. The Knell Of Capitalist Private Property Sounds. The Expropriators Are Expropriated.
Mean
Sprung Up
Sound
Work Is External To The Worker. . . . It Is Not Part Of His Nature; Consequently He Does Not Fulfill Himself In His Work But Denies Himself. . . . The Worker Therefore Feels Himself At Home Only During His Leisure Time, Whereas At Work He Feels Homeless.
Home
Doe
Leisure
Machines Were, It May Be Said, The Weapon Employed By The Capitalists To Quell The Revolt Of Specialized Labor.
Machines
May
Weapons
The Unity Is Brought About By Force .
Unity
Force
The Social Principles Of Christianity Preach Cowardice, Self-contempt, Abasement, Submission, Humility, In A Word All The Qualities Of The Canaille
Humility
Self
Quality
2 Is A Proletariat Prime, But 4, 6 And 8 Are Also Composite Proletariats. Composites Of The World Unite; You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Chains!
World
Nothing To Lose
Prime
In The United States Of North America, Every Independent Movement Of The Workers Was Paralysed So Long As Slavery Disfigured A Part Of The Republic. Labour Cannot Emancipate Itself In The White Skin Where In The Black It Is Branded.
Independent
White
America
The Traditions Of The Dead Generations Weigh Like A Nightmare Upon The Living.
Generations
Nightmare
Tradition
The State Is The Executive Committee Of The Ruling Class.
Class
States
Ruling
Life Is Not Determined By Consciousness, But Consciousness By Life.
Life
Determined
Consciousness
You Will Have To Go Through 15, 20, 50 Years Of Civil Wars And National Struggles Not Only To Bring About A Change In Society But Also To Change Yourselves, And Prepare Yourselves For The Exercise Of Political Power.
War
Struggle
Communication
Communism Is The Riddle Of History Solved, And It Knows Itself To Be This Solution.
Communication
Communist Manifesto
Communism
History Does Nothing; It Does Not Possess Immense Riches, It Does Not Fight Battles. It Is Men, Real, Living, Who Do All This.
Inspirational
Real
Fighting
The Religious World Is But A Reflex Of The Real World.
Religious
Real
World
[napoleon] Swept Away Everywhere The Establishments Of Feudality. ... [he Was] Caesar Himself.
Swept Away
Establishment
The Bureaucracy Is A Circle From Which No One Can Escape. Its Hierarchy Is A Hierarchy Of Knowledge.
Philosophy
Circles
Political
The More A Ruling Class Is Able To Assimilate The Most Prominent Men Of A Ruled Class, The More Solid And Dangerous Its Rule.
Men
Class
Able
Social Reforms Are Never Carried Out By The Weakness Of The Strong; But Always By The Strength Of The Weak.
Strong
Weakness
Reform
Owners Of Capital Will Stimulate Working Class To Buy More And More Of Expensive Goods, Houses And Technology, Pushing Them To Take More And More Expensive Credits, Until Their Debt Becomes Unbearable. The Unpaid Debt Will Lead To Bankruptcy Of Banks Which Will Have To Be Nationalized And State Will Have To Take The Road Which Will Eventually Lead To Communism.
Technology
Class
House
Language Is As Old As Consciousness, Language Is Practical, Real Consciousness That Exists For Other Men As Well, And Only Therefore Does It Also Exist For Me; Language, Like Consciousness, Only Arises From The Need, The Necessity, Of Intercourse With Other Men.
Real
Men
Doe
The Individual Produces An Object And, By Consuming It, Returns To Himself, But Returns As A Productive And Self Reproducing Individual. Consumption Thus Appears As A Moment Of Production.
Self
Return
Moments
Capitalist Agricultural Production Prevents The Return To The Soil Of Its Elements Consumed By Man In The Form Of Food And Clothing; It Therefore Violates The Conditions Necessary To Lasting Fertility Of The Soil. By This Action It Destroys At The Same Time The Health Of The Town Labourer And The Intellectual Life Of The Rural Labourer.
Men
Intellectual
Fertility
Ideas Do Not Exist Separately From Language.
Ideas
Language
A Commodity Has A Value Because It Is A Crystallization Of Social Labor. The Greatness Of Its Value, Or Its Relative Value, Depends Upon The Greater Or Less Amount Of That Social Substance Contained In It; That Is To Say, On The Relative Mass Of Labor Necessary For Its Production.
Greatness
Relative Value
Substance
In Communist Society, Where Nobody Has One Exclusive Sphere Of Activity But Each Can Become Accomplished In Any Branch He Wishes, Society Regulates The General Production And Thus Makes It Possible For Me To Do One Thing Today And Another Tomorrow, To Hunt In The Morning, Fish In The Afternoon, Rear Cattle In The Evening, Criticize After Dinner, Just As I Have A Mind, Without Ever Becoming Hunter, Fisherman, Shepherd Or Critic.
Morning
Work
Mind
Money Degrades All The Gods Of Man And Converts Them Into Commodities.
Men
Wealth
Commodity
An Organised System Of Machines, To Which Motion Is Communicated By The Transmitting Mechanism From A Central Automation, Is The Most Developed Form Of Production By Machinery.
Automation
Machines
Form
Gold Is Now Money With Reference To All Other Commodities Only Because It Was Previously, With Reference To Them, A Simple Commodity.
Simple
Gold
Commodity
...the Communists Everywhere Support Every Revolutionary Movement Against The Existing Social And Political Order Of Things... They Openly Declare That Their Ends Can Be Attained Only By The Forcible Overthrow Of All Existing Social Conditions.
Communication
Order
Political
The Bureaucracy Is A Circle From Which One Cannot Escape. Its Hierarchy Is A Hierarchy Of Knowledge. The Top Entrusts The Understanding Of Detail To The Lower Levels, Whilst The Lower Levels Credit The Top With Understanding Of The General, And So All Are Mutually Deceived.
Circles
Understanding
Details
The Rule Of The Bourgeois Democrats [in Pre-federal Germany], From The Very First, Will Carry Within It The Seeds Of Its Own Destruction
Germany
Firsts
Destruction
Reason Has Always Existed, But Not Always In A Reasonable Form.
Philosophical
Dignity
Communist Manifesto
We Will Hang The Capitalists With The Rope That They Sell Us.
Rope
Capitalist
Sells
The Leading Princes Are The Most Servile Tools Of English Despotism. . . . The Native Princes Are The Stronghold Of The Present Abominable English System.
Tools
Despotism
Strongholds
Christ Represents Originally: 1) Men Before God; 2) God For Men; 3) Men To Man. Similarly, Money Represents Originally, In Accordance With The Idea Of Money: 1) Private Property For Private Property; 2) Society For Private Property; 3) Private Property For Society. But Christ Is Alienated God And Alienated Man. God Has Value Only Insofar As He Represents Christ, And Man Has Value Only Insofar As He Represents Christ. It Is The Same With Money.
Men
Ideas
Christ
The Consciousness Of The Past Weighs Like A Nightmare On The Brain Of The Living.
Past
History
Brain
Labor In The White Skin Can Never Free Itself As Long As Labor In The Black Skin Is Branded.
White
Long
Black
Modern Bourgeois Society With Its Relations Of Production, Of Exchange, And Of Property, A Society That Has Conjured Up Such Gigantic Means Of Production And Of Exchange, Is Like The Sorcerer, Who Is No Longer Able To Control The Powers Of The Nether World Whom He Has Called Up By His Spells.
Mean
World
Able
It Is Not The Consciousness Of Men That Determines Their Being, But, On The Contrary, Their Social Being That Determines Their Consciousness.
Men
Consciousness
Communist Manifesto
We Should Not Say That One Man's Hour Is Worth Another Man's 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 Time's Carcass.
Time
Men
Hours
The Bureaucracy Takes Itself To Be The Ultimate Purpose Of The State
Purpose
States
Bureaucracy
Misery Motivates, Not Utopia.
Fear
Atheism
Misery
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.
Time
Science
Scientist
The Most Violent, Mean And Malignant Passions Of The Human Breast, The Furies Of Private Interest.
Passion
Mean
Violent
In Short, Competition Has To Shoulder The Responsibility Of Explaining All The Meaningless Ideas Of The Economists, Whereas It Should Rather Be The Economists Who Explain Competition.
Responsibility
Ideas
Competition
When The Sufferers Learn To Think, Then The Thinkers Will Learn To Suffer.
Thinking
Suffering
Thinker
Force Is The Midwife Of Every Old Society Pregnant With A New One.
Force
Midwife
Pregnant
The Imaginary Flowers Of Religion Adorn Man's Chains. Man Must Throw Off The Flowers, And Also The Chains.
Flower
Men
Agnostic
Since The Working-class Lives From Hand To Mouth,it Buys As Long As It Has The Means To Buy.
Mean
Hands
Class
There Are, Besides, Eternal Truths, Such As Freedom, , Etc., That Are Common To All States Of Society. But Communism Abolishes Eternal Truths, It Abolishes All Religion, And All Morality, Instead Of Constituting Them On A New Basis; It Therefore Acts In Contradiction To All Past Historical Experience.
Past
Government
Historical
We Know That Violent Measures Against Religion Are Nonsense; But This Is An Opinion: As Socialism Grows, Religion Will Disappear. Its Disappearance Must Be Done By Social Development, In Which Education Must Play A Part.
Play
Done
Development
Just As The Savage Must Wrestle With Nature To Satisfy His Wants, To Maintain And Reproduce Life, So Must Civilised Man, And He Must Do So In All Social Formations And Under All Possible Modes Of Production.
Men
People
Savages
History Repeats Itself, The First As Tragedy, Then As Farce.
Funny
Sarcastic
Philosophy
Religion Is The Opiate Of The People.
Religious
People
Religion
A Man Cannot Become A Child Again, Or He Becomes Childish.
Children
Men
Capital Brings Forth Living Offspring, Or At The Least, Lays The Golden Eggs.
Eggs
Golden
Occult
Price, Taken By Itself, Is Nothing But The Monetary Expression Of Value.
Taken
Expression
Monetary
They Don't Know It, But They Are Doing It.
Clean Air
Knows
In The Bureaucracy, The Identity Of State Interest And Particular Private Aim Is Established In Such A Way That The State Interest Becomes A Particular Private Aim Over Against Other Private Aims.
Identity
Way
States
There Is Something In Human History Like Retribution; And It Is A Rule Of Historical Retribution That Its Instrument Be Forged Not By The Offended, But By The Offender Himself. The First Blow Dealt To The French Monarchy Proceeded From The Nobility, Not From The Peasants. The Indian Revolt Does Not Commence With The Ryots, Tortured, Dishonoured And Stripped Naked By The British, But With The Sepoys, Clad, Fed And Petted, Fatted And Pampered By Them.
Blow
Historical
Firsts
Democracy Is The Road To Socialism.
Historical
Democracy
Liberty
I Am Nothing But I Must Be Everything.
The English Have All The Material Requisites For The Revolution. What They Lack Is The Spirit Of Generalization And Revolutionary Ardour.
Revolution
Spirit
Generalization
The Philosophers Have Only Interpreted The World, In Various Ways: The Point, However, Is To Change It.
Change
Courage
Peace
Anyone Who Knows Anything Of History Knows That Great Social Changes Are Impossible Without Feminine Upheaval. Social Progress Can Be Measured Exactly By The Social Position Of The Fair Sex, The Ugly Ones Included.
Sex
Progress
Ugly
No Sooner Is The Exploitation Of The Labourer By The Manufacturer, So Far, At An End, That He Receives His Wages In Cash, Than He Is Set Upon By The Other Portions Of The Bourgeoisie, The Landlord, The Shopkeeper, The Pawnbroker, Etc.
Bourgeoisie
Wages
Cash
The National Debt Has Given Rise To Joint Stock Companies, To Dealings In Negotiable Effects Of All Kinds, And To Agiotage , In A Word To Stock-exchange Gambling And The Modern Bankocracy .
Gambling
Debt
Joints
The Bourgeoisie, Wherever It Has Got The Upper Hand, Has Put An End To All Feudal, Patriarchal, Idyllic Relations. It Has Pitilessly Torn Asunder The Motley Of Ties That Bound Man To His "natural Superiors," And Left Remaining No Other Nexus Between Man And Man Than Naked Self-interest, Than Callous "cash Payment.
Men
Self
Hands
The Fact That Labour Is External To The Worker, I.e., It Does Not Belong To His Intrinsic Nature; That In His Work, Therefore He Does Not Affirm Himself But Denies Himself, Does Not Feel Content But Unhappy, Does Not Develop Freely His Physical And Mental Energy But Mortifies His Body And His Mind. The Worker Therefore Only Feels Himself Outside His Work, And In His Work Feels Outside Himself.
Mind
Unhappy
Energy
So In Jewry We Recognise A Contemporary Universal Anti-social Phenomenon, Which Has Reached Its Present Pitch Through A Process Of, Historical Development In Which The Jews Have Zealously Co-operated. And This Evil Anti-social Aspect Of Jewry Has Grown To A Stage At Which: It Must Necessarily Collapse.
Evil
Historical
Development
Do Not Be Deluded By The Abstract Word Freedom. Whose Freedom? Not The Freedom Of One Individual In Relation To Another, But Freedom Of Capital To Crush The Worker.
Crush
Individual
Abstract
...the French Revolution Gave Rise To Ideas Which Led Beyond The Ideas Of The Entire Old World Order. The Revolutionary Movement Which Began In 1789... Gave Rise To The Communist Idea Which Babeuf's Friend Buonarroti Re-introduced In France After The Revolution Of 1830. This Idea, Consistently Developed, Is The Idea Of The New World Order.
Communication
Ideas
Order
The Social Revolution...cannot Draw Its Poetry From The Past, But Only From The Future. It Cannot Begin With Itself Before It Has Stripped Itself Of All Superstitions Concerning The Past.
Past
Superstitions
Revolution
Men Make Their Own History, But They Do Not Make It Just As They Please; They Do Not Make It Under Circumstances Chosen By Themselves, But Under Circumstances Directly Encountered, Given And Transmitted From The Past. The Tradition Of All The Dead Generations Weighs Like A Nightmare On The Brain Of The Living.
Past
Men
Brain
But There Is A Devil Of A Difference Between Barbarians Who Are Fit By Nature To Be Used For Anything, And Civilized People Who Apply Them Selves To Everything.
Self
Differences
People
In The Eyes Of Dialectical Philosophy, Nothing Is Established For All Times, Nothing Is Absolute Or Sacred.
Philosophy
Eye
Sacred
The Materialist Doctrine That Men Are Products Of Circumstances And Upbringing, And That, Therefore, Changed Men Are Products Of Other Circumstances And Changed Upbrinding, Forgets That It Is Men That Change Circumstances And That The Educator Himself Needs Educating.
Men
Doctrine
Needs
Take Away A Nation's Heritage And They Are More Easily Persuaded.
Heritage
Nations
It Would Perhaps Be As Well If Things Were To Remain Quiet For A Few Years Yet, So That All This 1848 Democracy Has Time To Rot Away.
Democracies Have
Years
Democracy
An Object Of Art Creates A Public Capable Of Finding Pleasure In Its Beauty. Production, Therefore, Not Only Produces An Object For The Subject, But Also A Subject For The Object.
Art
Pleasure
Produce
Keep People From Their History, And They Are Easily Controlled.
People
Controlled
Capital Is Reckless Of The Health Or Length Of Life Of The Laborer, Unless Under Compulsion From Society.
Philosophical
Health
Length Of Life
Our Epoch, The Epoch Of The Bourgeoisie, Posses However, This Distinctive Feature; It Has Simplified The Class Antagonisms. Society As A Whole Is More And More Splitting Up Into Two Great Hostile Camps, Into Two Great Classes Directly Facing Each Other.
Class
Two
Bourgeoisie
The Object Of Art Like Every Other Product Creates A Public Which Is Sensitive To Art And Enjoys Beauty.
Art
Sensitive
Enjoy
A Circuit Performed By A Capital And Meant To Be A Periodical Process, Not An Individual Act, Is Called Its Turnover. The Duration Of This Turnover Is Determined By The Sum Of Its Time Of Production And Its Time Of Circulation.
Duration
Determined
Individual
Philosophy Studies The World, But The Point Is To Change It.
Philosophy
World
Study
Religion Is The Impotence Of The Human Mind To Deal With Occurrences It Cannot Understand.
Atheist
Mind
Deals
Advances In Science Help To Delegitimize The Rule Of Kings And The Power Of The Church.
Kings
Church
Helping
Perseus Wore A Magic Cap That The Monsters He Hunted Down Might Not See Him. We Draw The Magic Cap Down Over Eyes And Ears As A Make-believe That There Are No Monsters.
Believe
Eye
Magic
It's Possible That I Shall Make An Ass Of Myself. But In That Case One Can Always Get Out Of It With A Little Dialectic. I Have, Of Course, So Worded My Proposition As To Be Right Either Way.
Littles
Way
Ass
Beauty Is The Main Positive Form Of The Aesthetic Assimilation Of Reality, In Which Aesthetic Ideal Finds It Direct Expression.
Reality
Expression
Form
Accumulate, Accumulate! This Is Moses And The Prophets!
Moses
Prophet
If I Negate Powdered Wigs, I Am Still Left With Unpowdered Wigs.
Wigs
Stills
Left
Every Provisional Political Set-up Following A Revolution Requires A Dictatorship, And An Energetic Dictatorship At That.
Political
Revolution
Dictatorship
We Cannot Tell By Looking At The Diamond That It Is A Commodity. When It Serves As A Use-value, Asthetic Or Mechanical, On The Breast Of A Harlot, Or In The Hand Of A Glasscutter, It Is A Diamond And Not A Commodity.
Hands
Use
Commodity
Communism Begins Where Atheism Begins.
Atheism
Communism
As Individuals Express Their Life, So They Are. What They Are, Therefore, Coincides With Their Production, Both With What They Produce And With How They Produce. The Nature Of Individuals Thus Depends On The Material Conditions Determining Their Production.
Individual
Produce
Materials
Political Economy Regards The Proletarian Like A Horse, He Must Receive Enough To Enable Him To Work. It Does Not Consider Him, During The Time When He Is Not Working, As A Human Being. It Leaves This To Criminal Law, Doctors, Religion, Statistical Tables, Politics, And The Beadle.
Horse
Doctors
Law
The Directing Motive, The End And Aim Of Capitalist Production, Is To Extract The Greatest Possible Amount Of Surplus Value, And Consequently To Exploit Labor-power To The Greatest Possible Extent.
Ends
Motive
Aim
There Are No Circumstances Imaginable, Not Even Victory, Under Which The Proletariat Should Give Up Its Possession Of Arms.
Giving Up
Victory
Arms
Hence Money May Be Dirt, Although Dirt Is Not Money.
May
Dirt
Every Emancipation Is A Restoration Of The Human World And Of Human Relationships To A Man Himself.
Men
Restoration
World
The Production Of Too Many Useful Things Results In Too Many Useless People.
Work
Philosophical
Technology
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.
Technology
Together
Soil
The Wealthy Man Is The Man Whois Much, Not The One Who Has Much
Inspiration
Men
He Man
These Numerous Points At Which Money Is Withdrawn From Circulation And Accumulated In Numerous Individual Hoards Or Potential Money-capitals Appears As So Many Obstacles To Circulation, Because They Immobilise The Money And Deprive It Of Its Capacity To Circulate For A Certain Time.
Obstacles
Individual
Capacity
With Disdain I Will Throw My Gauntlet Full In The Fact Of The World And See The Collapse Of This Pygmy Giant. Then Will I Wander God-like And Victorious Through The Ruins Of The World. And Giving My Words An Active Force, I Will Feel Equal To The Creator.
Giving
Atheism
Facts
Catch A Man A Fish, And You Can Sell It To Him. Teach A Man To Fish, And You Ruin A Wonderful Business Opportunity.
Motivational
Business
Humorous
Those Dogs Of Democrats And Liberal Riff-raff Will See That We're The Only Chaps Who Haven't Been Stultified By The Ghastly Period Of Peace.
Dog
Periods
Democrat
The World Will Be For The Common People, And The Sounds Of Happiness Will Reach Even The Deepest Springs.
Spring
People
Sound
Nothing Can Have Value Without Being An Object Of Utility.
Philosophy
Philosophical
Utility
Luxury Is The Opposite Of The Naturally Necessary.
Opposites
Luxury
All Social Life Is Essentially Practical. All Mysterious Which Lead Theory To Mysticism Find Their Rational Solution In Human Practice And In The Comprehension Of The Practice.
Peace
Ubuntu
Practice
A Great Deal Of Capital, Which Appears To-day In The United States Without Any Certificate Of Birth, Was Yesterday, In England, The Capitalised Blood Of Children.
Children
Yesterday
Blood
Men's Ideas Are The Most Direct Emanations Of Their Material State.
Philosophical
Men
Ideas
From Each According To His Abilities, To Each According To His Needs.
Inspirational
Philosophical
Political
The Working Class Is Revolutionary Or It Is Nothing.
Class
Revolutionary
Working Class
As The Variable Capital Always Stays In The Hands Of The Capitalist In Some Form Or Other, It Cannot Be Claimed In Any Way That It Converts Itself Into Revenue For Anyone .
Hands
Variables
Way
The Capitalist Knows That All Commodities, However Scurvy They May Look, Or However Badly They May Smell, Are In Faith And In Truth Money, Inwardly Circumcised Jews, And What Is More, A Wonderful Means Whereby Out Of Money To Make More Money.
Mean
Smell
Looks
Constant Labor Of One Uniform Kind Destroys The Intensity And Flow Of A Man's Animal Spirits, Which Find Recreation And Delight In Mere Change Of Activity.
Animal
Men
Delight
Private Property Has Made Us So Stupid And Partial That An Object Is Only Ours When We Have It, When It Exists For Us As Capital ... Thus All The Physical And Intellectual Senses Have Been Replaced By ... The Sense Of Having.
Stupid
Intellectual
Made
The First Requisite For The Happiness Of The People Is The Abolition Of Religion.
Atheist
Philosophical
People
Be Aware That The Reward For Labour, And Quantity Of Labour, Are Quite Disparate Things.
Rewards
Quantity
Labour
For The Bureaucrat, The World Is A Mere Object To Be Manipulated By Him.
Philosophical
World
Bureaucrats
One Capitalist Always Kills Many.
Capitalist
If You Can Cut The People Off From Their History, Then They Can Be Easily Persuaded.
Cutting
People
Liberty
I Do Not Like Money, Money Is The Reason We Fight.
Money
Fighting
Reason
Under No Pretext Should Arms And Ammunition Be Surrendered; Any Attempt To Disarm The Workers Must Be Frustrated, By Force If Necessary.
Frustrated
Arms
Revolutionary
We Know Only A Single Science, The Science Of History. History Can Be Contemplated From Two Sides, It Can Be Divided Into The History Of Nature And The History Of Mankind. However, The Two Sides Are Not To Be Divided Off; As Long As Men Exist The History Of Nature And The History Of Men Are Mutually Conditioned.
Nature
Science
Men
Civil Servants And Priests, Soldiers And Ballet-dancers, Schoolmasters And Police Constables, Greek Museums And Gothic Steeples, Civil List And Services List -- The Common Seed Within Which All These Fabulous Beings Slumber In Embryo Is Taxation.
Museums
Civilization
Dancer
I Pre-suppose, Of Course, A Reader Who Is Willing To Learn Something New And Therefore To Think For Himself.
Thinking
Something New
Reader
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