Friedrich Engels citáty

„Osobnosť človeka je charakterizovaná nielen tým, čo robí, ale i tým, ako to robí.“

—  Friedrich Engels

„Je láska radosť milencov z totožnosti, alebo z rozdielnosti?“

—  Friedrich Engels

„Ľudia sú určovaní pomermi - ale poriadne im to odplácajú.“

—  Friedrich Engels

„Práca je zdrojom všetkého bohatstva, hovoria politickí ekonómovia. Je ním -vedľa prírody, ktorá jej dodáva materiál, ktorý premieňa na bohatstvo. Ale je ešte nekonečne viac ako to. Je prvou základnou podmienkou všetkého ľudského života, a síce do takej miery, že v určitom zmysle musíme povedať: stvorila samotného človeka.“

—  Friedrich Engels

„Práca stvorila človeka.“

—  Friedrich Engels

„Prostitúcia degraduje medzi ženami len tie nešťastné, ktoré jej podľahnú a aj tie zďaleka nie do tej miery, ako sa to obyčajne verí. Naproti tomu ponižuje charakter celého mužského sveta.“

—  Friedrich Engels

„Tradícia je veľká brzdiaca sila, je to zotrvačná sila dejín. Ale je iba pasívna, a preto musí podľahnúť.“

—  Friedrich Engels

„Have these gentlemen ever seen a revolution? A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is an act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets, and cannons, all of which are highly authoritarian means. And the victorious party must maintain its rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionaries. Would the Paris Commune have lasted more than a day if it had not used the authority of the armed people against the bourgeoisie? Cannot we, on the contrary, blame it for having made too little use of that authority? Therefore, one of two things: either that anti-authoritarians don’t know what they are talking about, in which case they are creating nothing but confusion. Or they do know, and in that case they are betraying the cause of the proletariat. In either case they serve only reaction.8 This“

—  Friedrich Engels

Zdroj: On Authority, see https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/10/authority.htm

„How is it possible that the poorer classes can remain healthy and have a reasonable expectation of life under such conditions? What can one expect but that they should suffer from continual outbreaks of epidemics and an excessively low expectation of life? The physical condition of the workers shows a progressive deterioration.“

—  Friedrich Engels

The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 (1845)

„Everywhere the proletariat develops in step with the bourgeoisie. In proportion, as the bourgeoisie grows in wealth, the proletariat grows in numbers.“

—  Friedrich Engels, kniha Principles of Communism

Principles of Communism (1847)
Kontext: Everywhere the proletariat develops in step with the bourgeoisie. In proportion, as the bourgeoisie grows in wealth, the proletariat grows in numbers. For, since the proletarians can be employed only by capital, and since capital extends only through employing labor, it follows that the growth of the proletariat proceeds at precisely the same pace as the growth of capital. Simultaneously, this process draws members of the bourgeoisie and proletarians together into the great cities where industry can be carried on most profitably, and by thus throwing great masses in one spot it gives to the proletarians a consciousness of their own strength. Moreover, the further this process advances, the more new labor-saving machines are invented, the greater is the pressure exercised by big industry on wages, which, as we have seen, sink to their minimum and therewith render the condition of the proletariat increasingly unbearable. The growing dissatisfaction of the proletariat thus joins with its rising power to prepare a proletarian social revolution.

„When all capital, all production, all exchange have been brought together in the hands of the nation, private property will disappear of its own accord, money will become superfluous, and production will so expand and man so change that society will be able to slough off whatever of its old economic habits may remain.“

—  Friedrich Engels

(1847)

„Big industry has brought all the people of the Earth into contact with each other, has merged all local markets into one world market, has spread civilization and progress everywhere and has thus ensured that whatever happens in civilized countries will have repercussions in all other countries. It follows that if the workers in England or France now liberate themselves, this must set off revolution in all other countries – revolutions which, sooner or later, must accomplish the liberation of their respective working class.“

—  Friedrich Engels

(1847)

„Big industry, and the limitless expansion of production which it makes possible, bring within the range of feasibility a social order in which so much is produced that every member of society will be in a position to exercise and develop all his powers and faculties in complete freedom. It thus appears that the very qualities of big industry which, in our present-day society, produce misery and crises are those which, in a different form of society, will abolish this misery and these catastrophic depressions.
We see with the greatest clarity: (i) That all these evils are from now on to be ascribed solely to a social order which no longer corresponds to the requirements of the real situation; and (ii) That it is possible, through a new social order, to do away with these evils altogether.“

—  Friedrich Engels

(1847)

„Naturally, it is in the interest of the trader to be on good terms with the one from whom he buys cheap as well as with the other to whom he sells dear. A nation therefore acts very imprudently if it fosters feelings of animosity in its suppliers and customers. The more friendly, the more advantageous. Such is the humanity of trade. And this hypocritical way of misusing morality for immoral purposes is the pride of the free-trade system.“

—  Friedrich Engels

Natürlich ist es im Interesse des Handelnden, mit dem einen, von welchem er wohlfeil kauft, wie mit dem andern, an welchen er teuer verkauft, sich in gutem Vernehmen zu halten. Es ist also sehr unklug von einer Nation gehandelt, wenn sie bei ihren Versorgern und Kunden eine feindselige Stimmung nährt. Je freundschaftlicher, desto vorteilhafter. Dies ist die Humanität des Handels, und diese gleisnerische Art, die Sittlichkeit zu unsittlichen Zwecken zu mißbrauchen, ist der Stolz des Systems der Handelsfreiheit.
Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy (1844)

„The abolition of private property is, doubtless, the shortest and most significant way to characterize the revolution in the whole social order which has been made necessary by the development of industry – and for this reason it is rightly advanced by communists as their main demand.“

—  Friedrich Engels

(1847)

„It makes unavoidably necessary an entirely new organization of society in which production is no longer directed by mutually competing individual industrialists but rather by the whole society operating according to a definite plan and taking account of the needs of all.“

—  Friedrich Engels

(1847)

„The class of the wholly propertyless, who are obliged to sell their labor to the bourgeoisie in order to get, in exchange, the means of subsistence for their support. This is called the class of proletarians, or the proletariat.“

—  Friedrich Engels

(1847)

„The proletarian works with the instruments of production of another, for the account of this other, in exchange for a part of the product. … The proletarian liberates himself by abolishing competition, private property, and all class differences.“

—  Friedrich Engels, kniha Principles of Communism

Principles of Communism (1847)

„The slave is sold once and for all; the proletarian must sell himself daily and hourly. The individual slave, property of one master, is assured an existence, however miserable it may be, because of the master’s interest. The individual proletarian, property as it were of the entire bourgeois class which buys his labor only when someone has need of it, has no secure existence. This existence is assured only to the class as a whole.“

—  Friedrich Engels

(1847)