FRIEDRICH ENGELS

Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology, that mankind must first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.

Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.

The state is nothing but an instrument of opression of one class by another - no less so in a democratic republic than in a monarchy.

Look at the Paris Commune. That was the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

All history has been a history of class struggles between dominated classes at various stages of social development.

From the first day to this, sheer greed was the driving spirit of civilization.

The state is not abolished, it withers away.

Everything must justify its existence before the judgment seat of Reason, or give up existence.

The proletariat uses the State not in the interests of freedom but in order to hold down its adversaries, and as soon as it becomes possible to speak of freedom the State as such ceases to exist.

We have come to the point where a new machine invented in England deprives millions of Chinese workers of their livelihood within a year's time.

Modern industry and the opening of the world market made the struggle universal and at the same time gave it unheard-of virulence. Advantages in natural or artificial conditions of production now decide the existence or non-existence of individual capitalists as well as of whole industries and countries. He that falls is remorselessly cast aside.

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

All past history with the exception of the primitive stages was the history of class struggles.

[Describing London:] Close to the splendid houses of the rich such a lurking place of the bitterest poverty may also be found.

Giving them [workers] their own houses chain them once again to the soil and you break their power of resistance to the wage cutting of the factory owners.

If ... the taking over the tobacco trade by the state was socialistic, Napoleon and Metternich would rank among the founders of Socialism.

Just as Darwin discovered the law of evolution in organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of evolution in human history.

For [Karl] Marx, science was a creative, historic and revolutionary force.

… the most hated and calumniated man of his times.

When it becomes possible to speak of freedom, the state, as such, will cease to exist.

The state is no more than a machine for oppression of one class by another. This is as true of democracy as it is of monarchy.

Ideology is a process accomplished by the so-called thinker consciously, it is true, but with a false consciousness. The real motive forces impelling him remain unknown to him; otherwise it simply would not be an ideological process. Hence he imagines false or seeming motive forces.

In the hands of the clergy, politics and jurisprudence, as well as other sciences, remained branches of theology, and were treated according to the principles prevailing in the latter. The dogmas of the church were at the same time political axioms, and Bible quotations had the validity of law in every court. Even after the formation of a special class of jurists, jurisprudence long remained under the tutelage of theology

Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism

Freedom is the recognition of necessity