Society does not consist of individuals; it expresses the sum of connections and relationships in which individuals find themselves.

Nothing can be a value without being an object of utility. If the thing is useless, so is the labor contained in it; the labor does not count as labor, and therefore creates no value.

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.

My own contribution was: 1. to show that the existence of classes is merely bound up with certain historical phases in the development of production ; 2. that the class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat ; 3. that this dictatorship itself constitutes no more than a transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society .

The criticism of religion is the basis of all criticism.

Constant labor of one uniform kind destroys the intensity and flow of a man’s animal spirits, which find recreation and delight in mere change of activity.

Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

Money is the alienated essence of man’s work and existence; this essence dominates him and he worships it.

From the beginning, the Christian was the theorizing Jew; consequently, the Jew is the practical Christian.

Landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed.