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The abolition of private property is, doubtless, the shortest and most significant way to characterize the revolution in the whole social order which has been made necessary by the development of industry – and for this reason it is rightly advanced by communists as their main demand.

— Friedrich Engels Principles of Communism (1847)

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Communism

More quotes by Friedrich Engels

The capitalists soon had everything in their hands and nothing remained to the workers.

Principles of Communism (1847)

Hegel was the first to state correctly the relation between freedom and necessity. To him, freedom is the insight into necessity.

Big industry, competition and generally the individualistic organization of production have become a fetter which it must and will shatter.

Principles of Communism (1847)

Abolish competition and replace it with association.

Principles of Communism (1847)

Freedom does not consist in any dreamt-of independence from natural laws, but in the knowledge of these laws, and in the possibility this gives of systematically making them work towards definite ends.

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For the state to wither away completely, complete communism is necessary.

Vladimir Lenin The State and Revolution (1917)

I dislike Communism because it is undemocratic, and capitalism because it favors exploitation.

Bertrand Russell Unarmed Victory (1963)

Communism has sometimes succeeded as a scavenger, but never as a leader. It has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.

John F. Kennedy

The hopes which inspire communism are, in the main, as admirable as those instilled by the Sermon on the Mount, but they are held as fanatically and are as likely to do as much harm.

Bertrand Russell The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (1920)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Friedrich Engels (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.