Even the most wretched individual of our present society could not exist and develop without the cumulative social efforts of countless generations.
Thence results, for science as well as for industry, the necessity of the division and association of labor. I receive and I give - such is human life. Each directs and is directed in his turn.
I am sure that, on the one hand, the Rothschilds appreciate the merits of Marx, and that on the other hand, Marx feels an instinctive inclination and a great respect for the Rothschilds.
A jealous lover of human liberty, deeming it the absolute condition of all that we admire and respect in humanity, I reverse the phrase of Voltaire, and say that, if God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him.
Idealism is the despot of thought, just as politics is the despot of will.
I am conscious of my inability to grasp, in all its details and positive developments, any very large portion of human knowledge.
I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and censure.
To my utter despair I have discovered, and discover every day anew, that there is in the masses no revolutionary idea or hope or passion.
The freedom of all is essential to my freedom.
Freedom, morality, and the human dignity of the individual consists precisely in this that he does good not because he is forced to do so, but because he freely conceives it, wants it, and loves it.
I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.
Such a faith would be fatal to my reason, to my liberty, and even to the success of my undertakings it would immediately transform me into a stupid slave, an instrument of the will and interests of others.
But I recognize no infallible authority, even in special questions consequently, whatever respect I may have for the honesty and the sincerity of such or such an individual, I have no absolute faith in any person.
Political Freedom without economic equality is a pretense, a fraud, a lie and the workers want no lying.
From the naturalistic point of view, all men are equal. There are only two exceptions to this rule of naturalistic equality: geniuses and idiots.
A Boss in Heaven is the best excuse for a boss on earth, therefore If God did exist, he would have to be abolished.