Labor Quotes

Machines were, it may be said, the weapon employed by the capitalists to quell the revolt of specialized labor.

The alienation of man thus appeared as the fundamental evil of capitalist society.

Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.

In capitalist society spare time is acquired for one class by converting the whole life-time of the masses into labour-time.

The capitalist mode of production and accumulation, and therefore capitalist private property, have for their fundamental condition the annihilation of self - earned private property: in other words, the expropriation of the labourer.

The worker puts his life into the object; but now it no longer belongs to him, it belongs to the object.

The entire so-called history of the world is nothing but the creation of man through human labor.

When the labourer co-operates systematically with others, he strips off the fetters of his individuality, and develops the capabilities of his species.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

First 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.

Half‑finished work generally proves to be labor lost.

Let him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently to build one for himself

It has so happened in all ages of the world, that some have labored, and others have, without labor, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits.

Let minor differences, and personal preferences, if there be such; go to the winds. Let it be seen by the result, that the cause of free-men and free-labor is stronger in Chicago that day, than ever before.

Free labor has the inspiration of hope; pure slavery has no hope.