I am nothing but I must be everything.
Karl MarxRead
History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.
Interpretation
History is shaped by human actions and decisions, not by abstract forces or wealth.
In this quote, Karl Marx emphasizes the importance of the actions and decisions of individuals in shaping history. He argues against the notion that history is a passive entity that exists by itself; rather, it is the result of the choices and struggles of real, living people who drive change and development in society.
In practice
During a lecture on social movements, one might use this quote to illustrate the role of individuals in enacting change.
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.
I was escaping from Nature and at last becoming myself, that Other whom I was aspiring to be in the eyes of others.
Were not the gods forms created like me and you, mortal, transient?
The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy.
While optimism makes us live as if someday soon things will soon go better for us, hope frees us from the need to predict the future and allows us to live in the present, with the deep trust that God will never leave us alone but will fulfill the deepest desires of our heart... Joy in this perspective is the fruit of hope.
Atheism in its negation of gods is at the same time the strongest affirmation of man, and through man, the eternal yea to life, purpose, and beauty.
Things separate from their stories have no meaning. They are only shapes. Of a certain size and color. A certain weight. When their meaning has become lost to us they no longer have even a name. The story on the other hand can never be lost from its place in the world for it is that place.
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