I am nothing but I must be everything.
Karl MarxRead
And as for the Jews, who since the emancipation of their sect have everywhere put themselves, at least in the person of their eminent representatives, at the head of the counter-revolution -- what awaits them?
Interpretation
Marx critiques the role of Jews in counter-revolutionary movements post-emancipation.
In this quote, Karl Marx reflects on the position of Jews in society after their emancipation, suggesting that they have taken leadership roles in counter-revolutionary efforts. This observation raises questions about the complex interplay between social identity, power dynamics, and political movements, particularly in the context of Jewish history and the socio-political climate of Marx's time.
In practice
In a discussion on radical political movements, one might cite Marx's observation about Jewish leadership in counter-revolution.
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 believe in clear-cut positions. I think that the most arrogant position is this apparent, multidisciplinary modesty of "what I am saying now is not unconditional, it is just a hypothesis," and so on. It really is a most arrogant position. I think that the only way to be honest and expose yourself to criticism is to state clearly and dogmatically where you are. You must take the risk and have a position.
Necessity is the most powerful divinity the world knows – it is the result of physical forces set in operation by ethical forces.
When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace.
No one has ever laughed at a pun who did not see in the one word a twofold meaning. To materialists this world is opaque like a curtain; nothing can be seen through it. A mountain is just a mountain, a sunset just a sunset; but to poets, artists, and saints, the world is transparent like a window pane - it tells of something beyond....a mountain tells of the Power of God, the sunset of His Beauty, and the snowflake of His Purity.
At the present moment, the security of coherent philosophy, which existed from Parmenides to Hegel, is lost.
The silence is all there is. It is the alpha and the omega, it is God's brooding over the face of the waters; it is the blinded note of the ten thousand things, the whine of wings. You take a step in the right direction to pray to this silence, and even to address the prayer to "World." Distinctions blur. Quit your tents. Pray without ceasing.
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