I am nothing but I must be everything.
Karl MarxRead
Scientific truth is always paradox, if judged by everyday experience, which catches only the delusive appearance of things.
Interpretation
Scientific truth often contrasts with common perceptions, which can be misleading.
In this quote, Karl Marx highlights the idea that scientific truth often reveals complexities and contradictions that are not apparent in everyday experience. He asserts that what we commonly perceive can often be a deceptive simplification, and true understanding requires a deeper, more analytical approach that transcends initial appearances.
In practice
During a lecture on the nature of scientific inquiry, this quote can be used to illustrate the difference between layman's perceptions and the complexities revealed through science.
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.
It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our lives that we must draw our strength to live and our reasons for living.
A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him.
The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped.
When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy, the only decent thing to do is die at once.
The point is that our true nature is not some ideal that we have to live up to. It's who we are right now, and that's what we can make friends with and celebrate.
We are not to throw away those things which can benefit our neighbor. Goods are called good because they can be used for good: they are instruments for good, in the hands of those who use them properly.
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