I am nothing but I must be everything.
Karl MarxRead
...the first step in the revolution by the working class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to win the battle for democracy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of the working class gaining power to achieve democracy.
Karl Marx highlights that for a significant societal change, particularly a revolution, the working class must elevate its status to that of the ruling class. This transition is essential in the fight for true democracy, wherein the interests and rights of the proletariat are acknowledged and enforced.
Themes
Working ClassRevolutionDemocracyProletariatPower
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech advocating for workers' rights.
More from Karl Marx
All quotes βReligion is the opiate of the people.
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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.
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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.
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To be radical is to grasp things by the root.
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Men's ideas are the most direct emanations of their material state.
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