Quotes from The German Ideology

Karl Marx ·  575 pages

Rating: (2.6K votes)


“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas.”
― Karl Marx, quote from The German Ideology


“As individuals express their life, so they are.”
― Karl Marx, quote from The German Ideology


“For as soon as the distribution of labour comes into being, each man has a particular, exclusive sphere of activity, which is forced upon him and from which he cannot escape. He is a hunter, a fisherman, a herdsman, or a critical critic, and must remain so if he does not want to lose his means of livelihood; while in communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.”
― Karl Marx, quote from The German Ideology


“Philosophy and the study of the real world have the same relation to one another as onanism and sexual love.”
― Karl Marx, quote from The German Ideology


“Thus, in imagination, individuals seem freer under the dominance of the bourgeoisie than before, because their conditions of life seem accidental; in reality, of course, they are less free, because they are to a greater extent governed by material forces.”
― Karl Marx, quote from The German Ideology



“...to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, [and] criticise after dinner...”
― Karl Marx, quote from The German Ideology


About the author

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

Popular quotes

“To love you is her nature. But hers is a love from which no good may come. And your desire for her will lead only to cold, dark places.”
― Ari Berk, quote from Death Watch


“Adventure! People talked about the idea as if it was something worthwhile, rather than a mess of bad food, no sleep, and strange people inexplicably trying to stick pointed objects in bits of you.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times


“Fennik growled. "You mock me."
Korbyn's face was innocent, like Jidali's after he sneaked a cookie from Aunt Sabisa. "I would never mock such an illustrious personage," Korbyn said.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, quote from Vessel


“Absent Holmes, the Watson storytelling approach is the natural, instinctive one. And absent Holmes’s insistence, it is incredibly difficult to resist our desire to form narratives, to tell stories even if they may not be altogether correct, or correct at all. We like simplicity. We like concrete reasons. We like causes. We like things that make intuitive sense (even if that sense happens to be wrong).”
― Maria Konnikova, quote from Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes


“Guils is the greatest weapon vecause its cuts rarely heal and it aims for the heart”
― Orson Scott Card, quote from Earth Unaware


Interesting books

The Way of the Dragon
(2.9K)
The Way of the Drago...
by Chris Bradford
Vivian Apple at the End of the World
(4.5K)
Vivian Apple at the...
by Katie Coyle
The Boy on the Wooden Box
(12.2K)
Breaking Even
(4.2K)
Worth The Fall
(1.8K)
Worth The Fall
by Mara Jacobs
The Tenth Insight: Holding the Vision
(9.9K)
The Tenth Insight: H...
by James Redfield

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.