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.
Karl MarxRead
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.
Karl MarxRead
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.
Karl MarxRead
To be radical is to grasp things by the root.
Karl MarxRead
Men's ideas are the most direct emanations of their material state.
Karl MarxRead
Similar quotes
Here are some passing thoughts. Imagine looking up at the moon and seeing it burning. Imagine seeing the grocery store’s checkout girl grow horns. Imagine growing younger instead of older. Imagine feeling more powerful and more capable of falling in love with life every new day instead of being scared and sick and not knowing whether to stay under a sheet or venture forth into the cold.
Douglas CouplandRead
Silence is ever speaking; it is the perennial flow of language.
Ramana MaharshiRead
The Kingdom of God is not a matter of getting individuals to heaven, but of transforming the life on earth into the harmony of heaven.
Walter RauschenbuschRead
'The time has come,' the walrus said, 'to talk of many things: of shoes and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages and kings.'
Lewis CarrollRead
But if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive.
William ShakespeareRead
I tagged a first-timer one night at fight club. That Saturday night, a young guy with an angel’s face came to his first fight club, and I tagged him for a fight. That’s the rule. If it’s your first night in fight club, you have to fight. I knew that so I tagged him because the insomnia was on again, and I was in a mood to destroy something beautiful.
Chuck PalahniukRead