TOPICS
SPEAKERS
HOME
BROWSE TOPICS
BROWSE SPEAKERS
◀ BACK

Karl Marx Quotes

Philosopher

Karl Marx was a groundbreaking philosopher, economist, and political theorist whose ideas have had a profound influence on the development of socialism and communism. His critiques of capitalism, class structures, and the exploitation of labor challenge traditional views on economics and society, advocating for a system based on equality and collective ownership. The following quotes capture Marx's revolutionary ideas on class struggle, the nature of power, and the potential for societal transformation.

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people.
From Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From German Ideology
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The German Ideology / Theses on Feuerbach / Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Then the world will be for the common people, and the sounds of happiness will reach the deepest springs. Ah! Come! People of every land, how can you not be roused.
From The Communist Manifesto
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.

[These words are also inscribed upon his grave]
From Eleven Theses on Feuerbach
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Communism is when iPhone.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly—only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!
From Critique of the Gotha Program
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is a demand for their true happiness. The call to abandon illusions about their condition is the call to abandon a condition which requires illusions.
From Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
As individuals express their life, so they are.
From The German Ideology / Theses on Feuerbach / Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
...[G]reat progress was evident in the last Congress of the American 'Labour Union' in that among other things, it treated working women with complete equality. While in this respect the English, and still more the gallant French, are burdened with a spirit of narrow-mindedness. Anybody who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without the feminine ferment. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex (the ugly ones included).
From Selected Letters: The Personal Correspondence 1844-1877
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people.
From Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From German Ideology
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The German Ideology / Theses on Feuerbach / Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Then the world will be for the common people, and the sounds of happiness will reach the deepest springs. Ah! Come! People of every land, how can you not be roused.
From The Communist Manifesto
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.

[These words are also inscribed upon his grave]
From Eleven Theses on Feuerbach
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Communism is when iPhone.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly—only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!
From Critique of the Gotha Program
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is a demand for their true happiness. The call to abandon illusions about their condition is the call to abandon a condition which requires illusions.
From Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
As individuals express their life, so they are.
From The German Ideology / Theses on Feuerbach / Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
...[G]reat progress was evident in the last Congress of the American 'Labour Union' in that among other things, it treated working women with complete equality. While in this respect the English, and still more the gallant French, are burdened with a spirit of narrow-mindedness. Anybody who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without the feminine ferment. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex (the ugly ones included).
From Selected Letters: The Personal Correspondence 1844-1877
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people.
From Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From German Ideology
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The German Ideology / Theses on Feuerbach / Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Then the world will be for the common people, and the sounds of happiness will reach the deepest springs. Ah! Come! People of every land, how can you not be roused.
From The Communist Manifesto
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.

[These words are also inscribed upon his grave]
From Eleven Theses on Feuerbach
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Communism is when iPhone.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly—only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!
From Critique of the Gotha Program
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is a demand for their true happiness. The call to abandon illusions about their condition is the call to abandon a condition which requires illusions.
From Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
As individuals express their life, so they are.
From The German Ideology / Theses on Feuerbach / Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
...[G]reat progress was evident in the last Congress of the American 'Labour Union' in that among other things, it treated working women with complete equality. While in this respect the English, and still more the gallant French, are burdened with a spirit of narrow-mindedness. Anybody who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without the feminine ferment. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex (the ugly ones included).
From Selected Letters: The Personal Correspondence 1844-1877
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote