I am nothing but I must be everything.
Karl MarxRead
Even an entire society, a nation, or all simultaneously existing societies taken together, are not owners of the earth. They are simply its possessors, its beneficiaries, and have to bequeath it in an improved state to succeeding generations.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Society does not own the earth; it merely holds it temporarily for future generations.
This quote emphasizes the idea that humanity's relationship with the earth is that of temporary stewards rather than owners. Karl Marx asserts that societies and nations should ensure that they protect and enhance the environment, leaving it in a better condition for future generations to inherit. It challenges the notion of ownership and invites us to consider our responsibilities towards nature and future societies.
Themes
EarthStewardshipPossessorsResponsibilityFuture Generations
In practice
Example use cases
During an environmental conference to highlight the need for sustainability.
More from Karl Marx
All quotes →Religion is the opiate of the people.
Karl MarxRead
It is absolutely impossible to transcend the laws of nature. What can change in historically different circumstances is only the form in which these laws expose themselves.
Karl MarxRead
Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living.
Karl MarxRead
To be radical is to grasp things by the root.
Karl MarxRead
Men's ideas are the most direct emanations of their material state.
Karl MarxRead
Similar quotes
If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.
Thurgood MarshallRead
It is not necessarily those lands which are the most fertile or most favored in climate that seem to me the happiest, but those in which a long struggle of adaptation between man and his environment has brought out the best qualities of both.
T. S. EliotRead
It's a curious thing in American life that the most abject nonsense will be excused if the utterer can claim the sanction of religion. A country which forbids an established church by law is prey to any denomination. The best that can be said is that this is pluralism of a kind.
Christopher HitchensRead
We cannot restore integrity and morality to our society until each of us-singly and individually-takes responsibility for our actions.
Harry Emerson FosdickRead
Claiming for ourselves liberty of conscience, liberty to worship, we shall see to it that every other individual enjoys the same right.
James LarkinRead
We can neither heal nor build if, on the one hand the rich in our society see the poor as hordes of irritants or if on the other hand the poor sit back, expecting charity. All of us must take responsibility for the upliftment of our conditions, prepared to give our best to the benefit of all
Nelson MandelaRead