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Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels Quotes

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Famous Friedrich Engels Quotes

“The anarchists put the thing upside down. They declare that the proletarian revolution must begin by doing away with the political organization of the state. But to destroy it at such a moment would be to destroy the only organism by means of which the victorious proletariat can assert its newly-conquered power, hold down its capitalist adversaries, and carry out that economic revolution of society without which the whole victory must end in a new defeat and a mass slaughter of the workers similar to those after the Paris commune.”

MeanEndsStatesWholeMomentsWould BePoliticalEconomicRevolutionVictoryMassOrganizationWorkersDefeatParisAnarchyCapitalistOrganismsAdversariesAnarchismAnarchistSlaughterUpside DownProletariatCommunesThings Upside Down
Author:Friedrich Engels
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“...it was always our view that in order to attain this [proletarian revolution] and the other far more important aims of the future social revolution, the working class must first take possession of the organised political power of the state and by its aid crush the resistance of the capitalist class and organise society anew.”

FirstsImportantStatesPoliticalOrderSocialViewsClassCommunicationRevolutionAimPossessionAidsResistanceCrushCapitalistWorking ClassPolitical PowerOrganisedSocial Revolution
Book:Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: selected correspondence, 1846-1895
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“People think they have taken quite an extraordinarily bold step forward when they have rid themselves of belief in hereditary monarchy and swear by the democratic republic. In reality, however, the state is nothing but a machine for the oppression of one class by another, and indeed in the democratic republic no less than in the monarchy.”

PeopleThinkingStatesRealityBeliefStepsClassTakenMachinesDemocraticOppressionRepublicSwearMonarchySteps ForwardHereditaryDemocratic Republic
Book:Basic writings on politics and philosophy
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“We find two great gangs of political speculators, who alternately take possession of the state power and exploit it by the most corrupt ends -- the nation is powerless against these two great cartels of politicians who are ostensibly its servants, but in reality dominate and plunder it.”

TwoEndsStatesRealityPoliticalNationsPoliticianPossessionLibertarianServantPowerlessGangExploitsPlunderSpeculatorsCartels
Book:Basic writings on politics and philosophy
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“The first act by virtue of which the State really constitutes itself the representative of the whole of societythe taking possession of the means of production in the name of societythis is, at the same time, its last independent act as a State. State interference in social relations becomes, in one domain after another, superfluous, and then dies out of itself; the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things, and by the conduct of processes of production. The State is not abolished. It dies out.”

FirstsMeanPersonsStatesWholeGovernmentLastsDiesNamesSocialProcessVirtueRelationIndependentProductionsPossessionAdministrationRepresentativesReplacedDomainInterferenceSuperfluousSocial Relations
Book:Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
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