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.

A heavy or progressive or graduated income tax is necessary for the proper development of Communism.

The animal is one with its life activity. It does not distinguish the activity from itself. It is its activity. But man makes hislife activity itself an object of his will and consciousness. He has a conscious life activity. It is not a determination with which he is completely identified.

Nothing is easier than to give Christian asceticism a Socialist tinge.

The traditions of the dead generations weigh like a nightmare upon the living.

Without the presence of class warfare, trade unions would be hard put to justfy their existence.

Be aware that the reward for labour, and quantity of labour, are quite disparate things.