History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.

The leading princes are the most servile tools of English despotism. . . . The native princes are the stronghold of the present abominable English system.

The English Established Church... will more readily pardon an attack on 38 of its 39 articles than on 1/39 of its income.

As for slavery, there is no need for me to speak of its bad aspects. The only thing requiring explanation is the good side of slavery. I do not mean indirect slavery, the slavery of proletariat; I mean direct slavery, the slavery of the Blacks in Surinam, in Brazil, in the southern regions of North America. Direct slavery is as much the pivot upon which our present-day industrialism turns as are machinery, credit, etc. … Slavery is therefore an economic category of paramount importance.

All history is nothing but a continuous transformation of human nature.

When the labourer co-operates systematically with others, he strips off the fetters of his individuality, and develops the capabilities of his species.

Mankind always sets itself only such tasks as it can solve; since, looking at the matter more closely, we will always find that the task itself arises only when the material conditions necessary for its solution already exist or are at least in the process of formation.