I am nothing but I must be everything.
Karl MarxRead
Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the laborer, unless under compulsion from society.
Interpretation
The quote critiques capitalism's disregard for workers' well-being unless forced to care by societal pressure.
In this quote, Karl Marx emphasizes that capitalism prioritizes profit over the health and longevity of its laborers. He asserts that only when society compels it does capital take responsibility for the lives of workers, highlighting a fundamental critique of how economic systems often exploit human labor without regard for individual welfare.
In practice
During a discussion on workers' rights, this quote can highlight the need for systemic changes.
I am nothing but I must be everything.
Religion is the opiate of the people.
It is absolutely impossible to transcend the laws of nature. What can change in historically different circumstances is only the form in which these laws expose themselves.
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.
To be radical is to grasp things by the root.
Men's ideas are the most direct emanations of their material state.
History is rife with examples of governments taking actions to 'protect' their citizens from harm by controlling access to information and inhibiting freedom of expression and other freedoms outlined in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We must make sure, collectively, that the Internet avoids a similar fate.
I have an idea heaven will be both absolutely happy and absolutely dark, to protect us from the blaze of God.
The future always looks good in the golden land, because no one remembers the past.
But I cannot forget that, at other times I have been deceived in sleep by similar illusions; and, attentively considering those cases, I perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep, that I feel greatly astonished; and in amazement I almost persuade myself that I am now dreaming.
Life is wasted if we do not grasp the glory of the cross, cherish it for the treasure that it is, and cleave to it as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain. What was once foolishness to usβa crucified Godβmust become our wisdom and our power and our only boast in this world.
We must, therefore, be here as strangers and pilgrims, that we may plainly declare that we seek a city above.
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