Society and the World

No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible, until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought.

When it’s three o’clock in New York, it’s still 1938 in London.

Enter these enchanted woods,

All men have the mind which cannot bear [to see the suffering of] others.

Conscience: the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale … from hell’s heart I stab at thee.

A whaleship was my Yale College and my Harvard.

Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.

The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.

The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of Communism.

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

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

The class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat.

From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.

From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.

Hegel says somewhere that all great events and personalities in world history reappear in one fashion or another. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.

Religion is … the opium of the people.

Is it not passing brave to be a king,

Virtue is the fount whence honour springs.