Capitalist Quotes - Page 25

• Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force. But even Capitalist cynicism will admit that however unconscionable we may be when our own interests are affected, we can be most indignantly virtuous at the expense of others.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Self, May, Belief

  "The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism". Book by George Bernard Shaw, p. 214, 1928.

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• Nothing in our time is more interesting than the erstwhile capitalist corporation and the erstwhile Communist firm should, under the imperatives of organization, come together as oligarchies of their own members.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Organization, Interesting, Together

  John Kenneth Galbraith (1971). “The new industrial state”, Houghton Mifflin

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• I've long believed alas, that in highly organized industrial societies, capitalist or socialist, the stronger tendency is to converge - that if steel or automobiles are wanted and must be made on a large scale, the process will stamp its imprint on the society, whether that me be Magnitogorsk or Gary, Indiana.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Long, Stronger, Steel

  "The Age of Uncertainty". Book by John Kenneth Galbraith. Chapter 2, p. 84, 1977.

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• Who are the oppressors? The few: the King, the capitalist, and a handful of other overseers and superintendents. Who are the oppressed? The many: the nations of the earth; the valuable personages; the workers; they that make the bread that the soft-handed and idle eat.

  Mark Twain

  Kings, Bread, Earth

  Mark Twain (1992). “Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches & Essays: 1852-1890”, Library of America

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• The will of the capitalist is certainly to take as much as possible. What we have to do is not to talk about his will, but to enquire about his power, the limits of that power, and the character of those limits.

  Karl Marx

  Character, Limits, Capitalism

  Karl Marx, Hugh Griffith, F. Engels (2009). “Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels”, p.71, Collector's Library

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• What the working man sells is not directly his Labor, but his Laboring Power, the temporary disposal of which he makes over to the capitalist. This is so much the case that I do not know whether by the English Law, but certainly by some Continental Laws, the maximum time is fixed for which a man is allowed to sell his laboring power. If allowed to do so for any indefinite period whatever, slavery would be immediately restored. Such a sale, if it comprised his lifetime, for example, would make him at once the lifelong slave of his employer.

  Karl Marx

  Work, Men, Law

  Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Wolfgang Schirmacher (1997). “German socialist philosophy”, Continuum Intl Pub Group

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• In capitalist society spare time is acquired for one class by converting the whole life-time of the masses into labour-time.

  Karl Marx

  Class, Spare Time, Mass

  Karl Marx (2007). “Capital: A Critique of Political Economy - The Process of Capitalist Production”, p.581, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The labour-power is a commodity , not capital, in the hands of the labourer, and it constitutes for him a revenue so long as he can continuously repeat its sale; it functions as capital after its sale, in the hands of the capitalist, during the process of production itself.

  Karl Marx

  Hands, Long, Commodity

  Karl Marx (1957). “Capital”

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• It appears then, that capitalist production comprises conditions independent of good or bad will, conditions which permit the working-class to enjoy that relative prosperity only momentarily, and at that always only as the harbinger of a coming crisis.

  Karl Marx

  Independent, Class, Prosperity

  Karl Marx (1997). “Karl Marx, Frederick Engels: .. Karl Marx: Capital vol.II”

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• The directing motive, the end and aim of capitalist production, is to extract the greatest possible amount of surplus value, and consequently to exploit labor-power to the greatest possible extent.

  Karl Marx

  Ends, Motive, Aim

  Karl Marx (2012). “Das Kapital: A Critique of Political Economy”, p.178, Regnery Publishing

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• As a rule, large capitalists are Republicans and small capitalists are Democrats, but workingmen must remember that they are all capitalists, and that the many small ones, like the fewer large ones, are all politically supporting their class interests, and this is always and everywhere the capitalist class.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Class, Remember, Republican

  "Outlook for Socialism in the United States" by Eugene V. Debs in "International Socialist Review", www.marxists.org. September 1900.

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• We live in a capitalist system; anyone who believes they are above this system or purer than this system, even while shopping at the cute organic market across the street or taking a hiking vacation to Guatemala, is certifiable.

  Katy Lederer

  Cute, Believe, Vacation

  "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Capitalist". Interview with Benjamin Samuel, www.gelfmagazine.com. January 19, 2009.

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• When we use the term pig, for example, we are referring to the people who systematically violate the peoples' constitutional rights - whether they be monopoly capitalists or police. The term is now being adopted by radicals, hippies, and minority peoples. Even the workers, when the pigs supported strike-breakers like they did as Union Oil where 100 local police came in a cracked strikers' heads, began to call them by their true name.

  Bobby Seale

  Hippie, Rights, Pigs

  The Guardian Interview, February 1970.

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• Money has always been a particular problem for revolutionaries and anti-capitalists. What will money look like 'after the revolution'? How will it function? Will it exist at all? It's hard to answer the question if you don't know what money actually is. Proposing to eliminate it entirely seems utopian and naive.

  David Graeber

  Looks, Answers, Revolution

  "Note worthy: what is the meaning of money?" by David Graeber, www.theguardian.com. December 16, 2011.

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• Individual capitalists, in short, behave in such a way as to threaten the conditions that permit the reproduction of the capitalist class.

  David Harvey

  Class, Way, Individual

  "The Limits To Capital". Book by David Harvey, 1982.

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• Individual capitalists, in short, necessarily act in such a way as to de-stabilize capitalism.

  David Harvey

  Way, Individual, Capitalism

  "The Limits To Capital". Book by David Harvey, 1982.

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• Man is by nature a pragmatic materialist, a mechanic, a lover of gadgets and gadgetry; and these are the qualities that characterize the "establishment" which regulates modern society: pragmatism, materialism, mechanization, and gadgetry. Woman, on the other hand, is a practical idealist, a humanitarian with a strong sense of noblesse oblige, an altruist rather than a capitalist.

  Elizabeth Gould Davis

  Strong, Men, Hands

  "The First Sex". Book by Elizabeth Gould Davis. Chapter 22: "Woman in the Aquarian Age", 1971.

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• Think about the strangeness of today's situation. Thirty, forty years ago, we were still debating about what the future will be: communist, fascist, capitalist, whatever. Today, nobody even debates these issues. We all silently accept global capitalism is here to stay. On the other hand, we are obsessed with cosmic catastrophes: the whole life on earth disintegrating, because of some virus, because of an asteroid hitting the earth, and so on. So the paradox is, that it's much easier to imagine the end of all life on earth than a much more modest radical change in capitalism.

  Slavoj Žižek

  Thinking, Hands, Years

  "Mapping Ideology" by Slavoj Žižek, p.1, 1994.

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• I have endeavoured to show that the ability to pay taxes depends, not on the gross money value of the mass of commodities, nor on the net money value of the revenue of capitalists and landlords, but on the money value of each man's revenue compared to the money value of the commodities which he usually consumes.

  David Ricardo

  Men, Pay, Commodity

  David Ricardo, John Ramsay McCulloch (1852). “The Works of David Ricardo. With a notice of the life and writings of the author: by J. R. McCulloch”, p.7

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• If one fourth of the capital of a country were suddenly destroyed, or entirely transferred to a different part of the world, without any other cause occurring of a diminished demand for commodities, this scantiness of capital would certainly occasion great inconvenience to consumers, and great distress among the working classes; but it would be attended with great advantages to the remaining capitalists.

  Thomas Malthus

  Country, Class, Causes

  "Principles of political economy considered with a view to their practical application". Book by Thomas Malthus, Book II, Chapter I, "On The Progress of Wealth", Section X, p. 414, 1836.

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• Fear of repeating oneself, of repeating oneself may be the greatest bugaboo of late capitalist society. The fear has been marketed so effectively that a will to sustain attention on any one thing can be cancelled out easily in favour of the latest distraction.

  Jan Peacock

  Attention, May, Favour

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• It should be everyone's right in a capitalist system to have some way to take advantage of compound interest.

  Katy Lederer

  Way, Advantage, Should

  "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Capitalist". Interview with Benjamin Samuel, www.gelfmagazine.com. January 19, 2009.

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• That was a piece I did in 1963 with Konrad Lueg in a department store, in the furniture department. It was announced in some papers as an exhibition opening, but the people who came didn't know that it was to be a sort of Happening. I don't think it is quite right that it has become so famous anyhow. It was just a lot of fun, and the word itself, Capitalist Realism, hit just right. But it wasn't such a big deal.

  Gerhard Richter

  Art, Fun, Thinking

  Gerhard Richter, Dietmar Elger, Hans-Ulrich Obrist (2009). “Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007”, Distributed Art Pub Inc

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• I originally came from Dresden, where Socialist Realism prevailed. Konrad Lueg and I came up with it, for the most part ironically, since I now live in capitalism. It was certainly 'realism', but in another form - the capitalist form, as it were. It wasn't meant that seriously. It was more a slogan for that particular Happening at a furniture store.

  Gerhard Richter

  Art, Furniture, Form

  Gerhard Richter, Dietmar Elger, Hans-Ulrich Obrist (2009). “Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007”, Distributed Art Pub Inc

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• Rosa Luxemburg maintained that the capitalist system can keep up its rate of investment (and therefore its profits) only so long as it is expanding geographically.

  Joan Robinson

  Long, Investment, Profit

  Joan Robinson (1973). “Economic heresies: some old-fashioned questions in economic theory”

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