I am nothing but I must be everything.
Karl MarxRead
My object in life is to dethrone God and destroy capitalism.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects Karl Marx's radical views on religion and capitalism.
In this quote, Karl Marx articulates his aim to challenge both the divine authority represented by God and the prevailing economic system of capitalism. Marx believed that both religion and capitalism oppress the working class, and thus by 'dethroning' God, he is advocating for a materialist philosophy that prioritizes human needs and societal equality over spiritual and capitalist interests.
Themes
MarxismCapitalismReligionPhilosophyOppression
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about economic systems, this quote can be used to introduce Marxist critique.
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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Similar quotes
Knot the tie and go to work, unknot the tie and go to sleep. I sleep. I dream. I wake. I sing. I get out the hammer and start knocking in the wooden pegs that affix the meaning to the landscape, the inner life to the body, the names to the things. I float too much to wander, like you, in the real world. I envy it but that’s the dealio—you’re a train and I’m a trainstation and when I try to guess your trajectory I end up telling my own story.
Richard SikenRead
Humankind can't stand too much reality.
T. S. EliotRead
We ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible; and to become like him is to become holy, just, and wise.
PlatoRead
This doctrine of prenatal influence is now slowly being recognized, and science as well as religion calls out: 'Keep yourself holy, and pure.' So deeply has this been recognized in India, that there we even speak of adultery in marriage, except when marriage is consummated in prayer.
Swami VivekanandaRead
One must be able to let things happen.
Carl JungRead
If you want your own way, God will let you have it. Hell is the enjoyment of one's own way forever.
Dorothy L. SayersRead