Karl Marx
German philosopher, economist and revolutionary (1818 to 1883); co-author of The Communist Manifesto and author of Capital.
Karl Marx did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
What they believe
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The history of every society so far has been a history of class struggles
The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles.
gutenberg.orgSaid c. 1848This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These one: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 18 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
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The history of every society so far has been a history of class struggles
The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
The executive of the modern state manages the shared affairs of the capitalist class
The executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
Capitalism cannot survive without constantly overturning production and the whole of social relations
The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
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Machinery and division of labour make factory work monotonous and reduce the worker to an appendage of the machine
Owing to the extensive use of machinery and to division of labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
Capitalism produces its own grave-diggers, and its fall and the workers' victory are equally inevitable
What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
Communist theory can be summed up as the abolition of private property
In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
Private property already does not exist for nine-tenths of people, and exists for the few because of that
But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
Communism removes only the power to command others' labour through ownership, not the power to own what society produces
Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society; all that it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labour of others by means of such appropriation.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
Workers have no country, so communists cannot take one from them
The working men have no country. We cannot take from them what they have not got.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
The dominant ideas of every age have always been the ideas of its ruling class
The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
Once in power, the working class will gradually take all capital and centralise production in the state
The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class; and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
Political power in the proper sense is the organised power of one class to oppress another
Political power, properly so called, is merely the organised power of one class for oppressing another.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
Class society will give way to an association where each person's free development is the condition for everyone's
In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
Christian Socialism merely sanctifies the grievances of the aristocracy
Christian Socialism is but the holy water with which the priest consecrates the heart-burnings of the aristocrat.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
Bourgeois socialists want existing society without its revolutionary elements, a bourgeoisie without a proletariat
They desire the existing state of society minus its revolutionary and disintegrating elements. They wish for a bourgeoisie without a proletariat.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
As class struggle develops, utopian socialism's standing apart from it loses all practical value and justification
In proportion as the modern class struggle develops and takes definite shape, this fantastic standing apart from the contest, these fantastic attacks on it, lose all practical value and all theoretical justification.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
Communist aims can be reached only by forcibly overthrowing all existing social conditions
The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
Workers have nothing to lose but their chains and a world to win
The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
Beliefs others hold too
The history of every society so far has been a history of class struggles 2 hold this
The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
The executive of the modern state manages the shared affairs of the capitalist class 2 hold this
The executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
Capitalism cannot survive without constantly overturning production and the whole of social relations 2 hold this
The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society.
Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848; English edition of 1888) Said c. 1848
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