German philosopher and economist Karl Marx would have been 200 years old today.

The father of communism and the founder of the Frankfurt school has been revered to this day, and is one of the most influential figures in history. If you’re at work on this lovely bank holiday, it might not be best to tell your boss that the proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains… but you can certainly think it. If you’re spending the day down the pub, make sure to remember, though, that there’s no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism while you sink your delicious pint. Here are some of Marx’s most memorable quotes, there are plenty to choose from…

Karl Marx quotes

‘Keep people from their history, and they are easily controlled.’

‘Surround yourself with people who make you happy. People who make you laugh, who help you when you’re in need. People who genuinely care. They are the ones worth keeping in your life. Everyone else is just passing through.’

‘The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.’

‘Capitalist production, therefore, develops technology, and the combining together of various processes into a social whole, only by sapping the original sources of all wealth — the soil and the labourer.’

‘Hitherto, every form of society has been based … on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes.’

‘Catch a man a fish, and you can sell it to him. Teach a man to fish, and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.’ ‘From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.’

‘The worker puts his life into the object; but now it no longer belongs to him, it belongs to the object.’

‘The full man does not understand the wants of the hungry.’

‘The unity of the bourgeoisie can be shaken only by the unity of the proletariat’

‘Social reforms are never carried out by the weakness of the strong; but always by the strength of the weak.