Karl Marx: 10 great quotes on his birthday

May 5 marks the birthday of Karl Marx, who provided intellectual foundation for an array of regimes that at one time governed nearly half of Earth's population.

9. On not wanting to be pigeonholed

Fayaz Kabli/Reuters/File
A Kashmiri fisherman is reflected in the waters of Dal Lake as he throws a net to catch fish in Srinagar on May Day, 2012.

"For as soon as the distribution of labour comes into being, each man has a particular exclusive sphere of activity, which is forced upon him and from which he cannot escape. He is a hunter, a fisherman, a shepherd, or a critical critic and must remain so if he does not wish to lose his means of livelihood; while 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, to fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have in mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic." (From "The German Ideology")

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