“Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society: all that it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labor of others by means of such appropriation.It has been objected, that upon the abolition of private property all work will cease, and universal laziness will overtake us.According to this, bourgeois society ought long ago to have gone to the dogs through sheer idleness; for those of its members who work, acquire nothing, and those who acquire anything, do not work.”

German philosopher and revolutionary socialist

Karl Marx was a German philosopher, journalist, political theorist, and revolutionary socialist of the 19th century. He is known for shaping modern socialist thought and for his analysis of capitalism and class struggle. He developed historical materialism, arguing that social change is driven by material conditions and conflict between classes. He also co-wrote The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels and spent much of his work on a critique of political economy in Das Kapital. His ideas, later gathered under the name Marxism, became highly influential in politics, scholarship, and revolutionary movements.