In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality. The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848)
For capitalism is abolished root and branch by the bare assumption that it is personal consumption and not enrichment that works as the compelling motive. Das Kapital (Buch II) (1893)
Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor; And lives more by the labor it sucks.
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.
In bourgeois society... the past dominates the present; in Communist society, the present dominates the past. In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality. The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848)