Quotes About Progress

The new era differs from the old chiefly in that the lash begins to imagine itself possessed of genius.

The bourgeois during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together.

Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti.

By destroying the non-capitalist milieu on which its expansion is based, capitalism undermines the conditions of its own growth.

The disappearance of this non-capitalist (pre-capitalist) environment thus marks the absolute limit of capitalist development.

Every step of real movement is more important than a dozen programmes.

The very nature of expanded reproduction – capitalist reproduction – under capitalism implies that production takes place not only on a broader scale, but also under changed technological conditions.

Men [sic] make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. (Marx, 1963)

It is easy to imagine a society which, having reached a certain level of consumption, consciously decides to give absolute priority to a single goal: reduction of the work load.

Philosophers have hitherto interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it

Az biraz tarih bilen herkes büyük sosyal devrimlerin kad?nlar?n kat?l?m? olmadan gerçekleÅŸemeyeceÄŸini bilir. Toplumsal geliÅŸim bizzat daha güzel olan bu cinsiyetin (çirkinler dahil) toplumsal konumuna bak?larak ölçülebilir.

the forming of the five senses is a labour of the entire history of the world down to the present

T]he various stages and interests are never completely overcome, but only subordinated to the prevailing interest and trail along beside the latter for centuries afterwards.

philosophers have only interpreted the world; the point however, is to change it

Die Geschichte ist die wahre Naturgeschichte des Menschen.

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.

Der soziale Fortschritt kann an der sozialen Stellung des schönen Geschlechts gemessen werden, einschließlich der hässlichen Frauen.

It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image.

Le royaume de la liberté commence seulement là où l'on cesse de travailler par nécessité.

History repeats itself, the first as tragedy, then as farce.

All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.

It has created enormous cities, has greatly increased the urban population as compared with the rural, and has thus rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life.

Theory becomes realized among a people only in so far as it represents the realization of that people's needs.

Ist die Konstruktion der Zukunft und das Fertigwerden für alle Zeiten nicht unsere Sache, so ist desto gewisser, was wir gegenwärtig zu vollbringen haben, ich meine die rücksichtslose Kritik alles Bestehenden, rücksichtslos sowohl in dem Sinne, daß die Kritik sich nicht vor ihren Resultaten fürchtet und ebensowenig vor dem Konflikte mit den vorhandenen Mächten.