Quotes By Karl Marx

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.

It is not history which uses men as a means of achieving - as if it were an individual person - its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.

The will of the capitalist is certainly to take as much as possible. What we have to do is not to talk about his will, but to enquire about his power, the limits of that power, and the character of those limits.

It appears then, that capitalist production comprises conditions independent of good or bad will, conditions which permit the working-class to enjoy that relative prosperity only momentarily, and at that always only as the harbinger of a coming crisis.

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.

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.

The weapon of criticism can never replace the criticism of weapons.

Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the laborer, unless under compulsion from society.

The object of art like every other product creates a public which is sensitive to art and enjoys beauty.

Merely quantitative differences, beyond a certain point, pass into qualitative changes.

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.

The country that is more developed industrially only shows, to the less developed, the image of its own future.

Greek philosophy seems to have met with something with which a good tragedy is not supposed to meet, namely, a dull ending.

By means of the banking system the distribution of capital as a special business, a social function, is taken out of the hands of the private capitalists and usurers. But at the same time, banking and credit become the most effective means of driving captialist production beyond its own limits and one of the most effective vehicles of crises and swindle.

Although gold and silver are not by nature money, money is by nature gold and silver.

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.

Each piece of money is a mere coin, or means of circulation, only so long as it actually circulates.

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.

Scientific truth is always paradox, if judged by everyday experience, which catches only the delusive appearance of things.

Exchange value forms the substance of money, and exchange value is wealth.