Political economy came into being as a natural result of the expansion of trade, and with its appearance elementary, unscientific huckstering was replaced by a developed system of licensed fraud, an entire science of enrichment.
Friedrich EngelsRead
Thus at every step we are reminded that we by no means rule over nature like a conqueror over a foreign people, like someone standing outside nature - but that we, with flesh, blood and brain, belong to nature, and exist in its midst, and that all our mastery of it consists in the fact that we have the advantage over all other creatures of being able to learn its laws and apply them correctly.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We are part of nature, and our understanding of it allows us to coexist harmoniously rather than dominate it.
In this quote, Friedrich Engels emphasizes our integral connection to nature, arguing that rather than viewing ourselves as conquerors, we should recognize that we are a part of the natural world. Our unique ability to understand and apply the laws of nature is not a form of dominance, but a responsibility that allows us to live in harmony with our environment, suggesting that true mastery comes from learning and respecting nature rather than trying to control it.
Themes
NatureUnderstandingLearningHarmonyResponsibility
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech on environmental conservation, one could reference this quote to illustrate our relationship with nature.
More from Friedrich Engels
All quotes →I have learned more [from Balzac] than from all the professional historians, economists, and statisticians put together.
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People think they have taken quite an extraordinarily bold step forward when they have rid themselves of belief in hereditary monarchy and swear by the democratic republic. In reality, however, the state is nothing but a machine for the oppression of one class by another, and indeed in the democratic republic no less than in the monarchy.
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Just as Darwin discovered the law of evolution in organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of evolution in human history; he discovered the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of idealogy [sic], that mankind must first of all eat and drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, religion, art etc.
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...it was always our view that in order to attain this [proletarian revolution] and the other far more important aims of the future social revolution, the working class must first take possession of the organised political power of the state and by its aid crush the resistance of the capitalist class and organise society anew.
Friedrich EngelsRead
People have learned by bitter experience that the "European fraternal union of peoples" cannot be achieved by mere phrases and pious wishes, but only by profound revolutions and bloody struggles; they have learned that the question is not that of a fraternal union of all European peoples under a single republican flag, but of an alliance of the revolutionary peoples against the counter-revolutionary peoples, an alliance which comes into being not on paper, but only on the battlefield.
Friedrich EngelsRead
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