I am nothing but I must be everything.
Karl MarxRead
Labour is ... not the only source of material wealth, i.e, of the use-values it produces. As William Petty says, Labour is the father of material wealth, the earth is its mother.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes that while labor is crucial for creating material wealth, it is not the sole contributor; the earth itself plays a fundamental role.
In this quote, Karl Marx articulates the relationship between labor and material wealth, asserting that labor is instrumental in generating economic value. However, he also recognizes the importance of natural resources, likening labor to a father and the earth to a mother, implying that wealth creation is a collaborative process where both human effort and the natural environment are indispensable.
Themes
LaborWealthNatureEconomyResources
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech discussing the interplay between economic systems and environmental sustainability.
More from Karl Marx
All quotes →Religion 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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