Communism is the riddle of history solved, and it knows itself to be this solution.

The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all private property.

The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.

The more the division of labor and the application of machinery extend, the more does competition extend among the workers, the more do their wages shrink together.

In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade.

Society is a sort of organism on the growth of which conscious efforts can exercise little effect.

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.