Surplus-value and the rate of surplus-value are... the invisible essence to be investigated, whereas the rate of profit and hence the form of surplus-value as profit are visible surface phenomena

Between capitalist and communist society there lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.

There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.

The imaginary flowers of religion adorn man's chains. Man must throw off the flowers, and also the chains.

In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality.

In proportion therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases.

The task is not just to understand the world but to change it.