Quotes from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production

Karl Marx ·  1152 pages

Rating: (6.1K votes)


“There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“Accumulate, accumulate! This is Moses and the Prophets!”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“Moments are the elements of profit”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“Language is as old as consciousness, language is practical, real consciousness that exists for other men as well, and only therefore does it also exist for me; language, like consciousness, only arises from the need, the necessity, of intercourse with other men.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“within the capitalist system all methods for raising the social productiveness of labour are brought about at the cost of the individual labourer; all means for the development of production transform themselves into means of domination over, and exploitation of, the producers; they mutilate the labourer into a fragment of a man, degrade him to the level of an appendage of a machine, destroy every remnant of charm in his work and turn it into a hated toil; they estrange from him the intellectual potentialities of the labour process in the same proportion as science is incorporated in it as an independent power; they distort the conditions under which he works, subject him during the labour process to a despotism the more hateful for its meanness; they transform his life-time into working-time, and drag his wife and child beneath the wheels of the Juggernaut of capital. But all methods for the production of surplus-value are at the same time methods of accumulation; and every extension of accumulation becomes again a means for the development of those methods. It follows therefore that in proportion as capital accumulates, the lot of the labourer, be his payment high or low, must grow worse. The law, finally, that always equilibrates the relative surplus population, or industrial reserve army, to the extent and energy of accumulation, this law rivets the labourer to capital more firmly than the wedges of Vulcan did Prometheus to the rock. It establishes an accumulation of misery, corresponding with accumulation of capital. Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole, i.e., on the side of the class that produces its own product in the form of capital.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production



“In its rational form [dialectic] is a scandal and abomination to bourgeoisdom and its doctrinaire professors, because it includes in its comprehension and affirmative recognition of the existing state of things, at the same time also, the recognition of the negation of that state, of its inevitable breaking up; because it regards every historically developed social form as in fluid movement, and therefore takes into account its transient nature not less than its momentary existence because it lets nothing impose upon it, and is in its essence critical and revolutionary.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“A spider conducts operations that resemble those of a weaver, and a bee puts to shame many an architect in the construction of her cells. But what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in reality.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“Money is the alienated essence of man's labor and life; and this alien essence dominates him as he worships it.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“Hitherto men have always formed wrong ideas about themselves, about what they are and what they ought to be. They have arranged their relations according to their ideas of God, of normal man, etc. The products of their brains have got out of their hands. They, the creators, have bowed down before their creations.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“The economic structure of capitalist society has grown out of the economic structure of feudal society. The dissolution of the latter set free the elements of the former ... [T]he historical movement which changes the producers into wage-workers, appears, on the one hand, as their emancipation from serfdom and from the fetters of the guilds, and this side alone exists for our bourgeois historians. But, on the other hand, these new freedmen became sellers of themselves only after they had been robbed of all their own means of production, and of all the guarantees of existence afforded by the old feudal arrangements. And the history of this, their expropriation, is written in the annals of mankind in letters of blood and fire.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production



“It is not enough that the conditions of labour are concentrated at one pole of society in the shape of capital, while at the other pole are grouped masses of men who have nothing to sell but their labour-power. Nor is it enough that they are compelled to sell themselves voluntarily. The advance of capitalist production develops a working class which by education, tradition and habit looks upon the requirements of that mode of production as self-evident natural laws. The organization of the capitalist process of production, once it is fully developed, breaks down all resistance.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“What exclusively determines the magnitude of the value of any article is therefore the amount of labour socially necessary, or the labour-time socially necessary for its production.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“As exchange-values, all commodities are merely definite quantities of congealed labour-time.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“As use-values, commodities differ above all in quality, while as exchange-values they can only differ in quantity, and therefore do not contain an atom of use-value.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“A use-value, or useful article, therefore, has value only because abstract human labour is objectified or materialized in it. How, then, is the magnitude of value to be measured? By means of the quantity of the "value-forming substance", the labour, contained in the article. This quantity is measured by its duration, and the labour-time is itself measured on the particular scale of hours, days etc.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production



“As a matter of fact, the methods of primitive accumulation are anything but idyllic.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“Or how does it happen that trade, which after all is nothing more than the exchange of products of various individuals and countries, rules the whole world through the relation of supply and demand—a relation which, as an English economist says, hovers over the earth like the fate of the ancients, and with invisible hand allots fortune and misfortune to men, sets up empires and overthrows empires, causes nations to rise and to disappear—while with the abolition of the basis of private property, with the communistic regulation of production (and implicit in this, the destruction of the alien relation between men and what they themselves produce), the power of the relation of supply and demand is dissolved into nothing, and men get exchange, production, the mode of their mutual relation, under their own control again?”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“...paranın hareketi, yalnızca metaların dolaşımının ifadesi olduğu halde, tersine, metaların dolaşımı yalnızca paranın hareketinin sonucuymuş gibi görünür.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“Dolaşım aracı miktarının dolaşımdaki metaların fiyatlarının toplamı ve paranın ortalama el değiştirme hızı ile belirlenmesi yasası şöyle de ifade edilebilir: metaların değerlerinin toplamı ve başkalaşımlarının ortalama hızı veri ise, el değiştiren paranın ya da para maddesinin miktarı kendi değerine bağlı olur. Bunun tersinin geçerli olduğu, yani meta fiyatlarının dolaşım araçları miktarı ile ve bunun da bir ülkedeki para maddesinin miktarı ile belirlendiği yanılsaması, bunu ilk benimseyip savunanlar tarafından şu saçma hiptoteze dayandırılmıştı: dolaşım sürecine metalar fiyattan, para ise değerden yoksun olarak girer; fakat sonra, meta yığınının bir kısmı, metal yığınıın bir kısmıyla değiştirilmeye başlar.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“In proportion as the exploitation of one individual by another is put an end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will also be put an end to. In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation to another will come to an end.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production



“A use-value, or useful article, therefore, has value only because abstract human labour is objectified or materialized in it. How, then, is the magnitude of this value to be measured? By means of the quantity of the "value-forming substance", the labour, contained in the article. This quantity is measured by its duration, and the labour-time is itself measured on the particular scale of hours, days etc.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“İşçi sınıfının çalışmakta olan kısmının aşırı çalışması, işçi sınıfının yedek kısmını büyütürken, diğer taraftan, yedekte bulunan kısmın rekabet yoluyla çalışmakta olan kısım üzerinde yarattığı baskının artması, çalışmakta olan işçileri aşırı çalışmak ve sermayenin diktasına boyun eğmek zorunda bırakır.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“Burjuva toplumunda, her insanın meta alıcısı olarak meta hakkında ansiklopedik bilgi sahibi olduğu fictio juris’i (varsayımı) egemendir.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“Así corno en las religiones vemos al hombre esclavizado por las criaturas de su propio cerebro, en la producción capitalista le vemos esclavizado por los productos de su propio brazo.9”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“Acogeré con los brazos abiertos todos los juicios de la crítica científica. En cuanto a los prejuicios de la llamada opinión pública, a la que jamás he hecho concesiones, seguiré ateniéndome al lema del gran florentino: Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti! (III) Londres, 25 de julio de 1867. CARLOS MARX”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production



“Not an atom of matter enters into the objectivity of commodities as values; in this it is the direct opposite of the coarsely sensuous objectivity of commodities as physical objects. We may twist and turn a single commodity as we wish; it remains impossible to grasp it as a thing possessing value. However, let us remember that commodities possess an objective character as values only in so far as they are all expressions of an identical social substance, human labour, that their objective character as values is therefore purely social. From”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“Quien como yo concibe el desarrollo de la formación económica de la sociedad como un proceso histórico–natural, no puede hacer al individuo responsable de la existencia de relaciones de que él es socialmente criatura, aunque subjetivamente se considere muy por encima de ellas.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


“Es la declaración en quiebra de la economía “burguesa", expuesta ya de mano maestra, en su obra Apuntes de economía política según Stuart Mill por el gran erudito y crítico ruso N. Chernichevski.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production


About the author

Karl Marx
Born place: in Trier, Germany
Born date May 5, 1818
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“She hardly knew what to do, it had been so long since such strong feelings had borne down on her. It was like carrying another creature inside her, and nothing so benign and natural as a baby. Undamped, untamed, the pain and exultation of her attachment to them blew through Liga like a storm-wind carrying sharp leaves and struggling birds. How long she had known her daughters, and how well, and in what extraordinary vividness and detail! How blithely she had done the work of rearing them - it seemed to her now that she had had cause for towering, disabling anxieties about them; that what had seemed little plaints and sorrows in their childhoods were in fact off-drawings from much greater tragedies, from which she had tried to keep them but could not. And the joys she had had of them, too, their embraces and laughter - it was all too intense to be endured, this connection with them, which was a miniature of the connection with the forces that drove planet and season - the relentlessness of them, the randomness, the susceptibility to glory, to accident, to disaster. How soft had been her life in that other place, how safe and mild! And here she was, back where terrors could immobilize her, and wonders too; where life might become gulps of strong ale rather than sips of bloom-tea. She did not know whether she was capable of lifting the cup, let alone drinking the contents.”
― Margo Lanagan, quote from Tender Morsels


“I like to live in the past. I don't think people are going to get much fun in the future”
― William Manchester, quote from The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory 1874-1932


“She was, in fact, quite a pleasant looking girl, even if her bosom had clearly been intended for a girl two feet taller; but she was not Her. The Egregious Professor of Grammar and Usage would have corrected this to "she was not she," which would have caused the Professor of Logic to spit out his drink.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Unseen Academicals


“She’d already memorized the short Psalm and was hungry for more. Indeed, each word seemed woven into her soul the way the weaver wove his wares, taking the barest threads of her faith and making something beautiful and enduring as fine cloth deep inside her.”
― Laura Frantz, quote from Love's Reckoning


“Dirt!" she shouted, no longer able to contain her ire. "Of all the gifts I could have received, I am left with dirt.”
― Kristen Callihan, quote from Moonglow


Interesting books

Skeleton Crew
(93.9K)
Skeleton Crew
by Stephen King
All-American Girl
(60.1K)
All-American Girl
by Meg Cabot
Cursor's Fury
(49.2K)
Cursor's Fury
by Jim Butcher
Talon
(19.8K)
Talon
by Julie Kagawa
Halo: The Fall of Reach
(17.5K)
Halo: The Fall of Re...
by Eric S. Nylund
1Q84 #1-2
(14K)
1Q84 #1-2
by Haruki Murakami

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.