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Karl Marx Quotes about Work

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The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.

The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.

Karl Marx
Work, Philosophical, Technology
Erich Fromm, Karl Marx (2013). “Marx's Concept of Man: Including 'Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts'”, p.122, Bloomsbury Publishing

In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic.

Karl Marx
Morning, Work, Mind
Karl Marx, Jon Elster (1986). “Karl Marx: A Reader”, p.180, Cambridge University Press

The more powerful the work, the more powerless the worker.

Karl Marx
Powerful, Work, Workers
Karl Marx, Eugene Kamenka (1983). “The Portable Karl Marx”, Viking Adult

The worker puts his life into the object; but now it no longer belongs to him, it belongs to the object.

Karl Marx
Work, Workers, Objects
"Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts". Book by Karl Marx, "Alienated Labor" (p. 134), 1844.

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

The better shaped his product, the more misshapen the worker.

Karl Marx
Work, Workers, Products
Karl Marx, Lawrence H. Simon (1994). “Marx: Selected Writings”, p.61, Hackett Publishing

Labor produces marvels for the rich but it produces deprivation for the worker. It produces palaces, but hovels for the worker. It produces beauty, but deformity for the worker. It replaces labor by machines, but it throws one section of the workers back to barbaric labor, and it turns the remainder into machines.

Karl Marx
Work, Palaces, Machines
"Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts". Book by Karl Marx, "Alienated Labor" (p. 135), 1983.

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