“It is in this sense that Franklin says, "war is robbery, commerce is generally cheating."”

—  Karl Marx

Vol. I, Ch. 5, pg. 182 (on Benjamin Franklin)
(Buch I) (1867)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It is in this sense that Franklin says, "war is robbery, commerce is generally cheating."" by Karl Marx?
Karl Marx photo
Karl Marx 290
German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and … 1818–1883

Related quotes

John Adams photo

“The History of our Revolution will be one continued Lye from one end to the other. The essence of the whole will be that Dr. Franklins electrical Rod, smote the Earth and out sprung General Washington. That Franklin electrified him with his rod—and thence forward these two conducted all the Policy, Negotiations, Legislatures and War.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

Letter to Benjamin Rush, 4 April 1790. Alexander Biddle, Old Family Letters, Series A (Philadelphia: 1892), p. 55 http://books.google.com/books?id=5d8hAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA55
1790s

Samuel Johnson photo
Nelson Algren photo

“A certain ruthlessness and a sense of alienation from society is as essential to creative writing as it is to armed robbery.”

Source: Nonconformity (1953/1996)
Context: You don't write a novel out of sheer pity any more than you blow a safe out of a vague longing to be rich. Compassion is all to the good, but vindictiveness is the verity Faulkner forgot: the organic force in every creative effort, from the poetry of Villon to the Brinks Express Robbery, that gives shape and color to all our dreams. [... ] A certain ruthlessness and a sense of alienation from society is as essential to creative writing as it is to armed robbery. The strong-armer isn't out merely to turn a fast buck any more than the poet is out solely to see his name on the cover of a book, whatever satisfaction that event may afford him. What both need most deeply is to get even. And, of course, neither will.

John Robert Seeley photo

“Commerce in itself may favour peace, but when commerce is artificially shut out by a decree of Government from some promising territory, then commerce just as naturally favours war.”

John Robert Seeley (1834–1895) British historian

p. 110 https://books.google.com/books?id=Zsm3TLe1cAUC&pg=PA110
The Expansion of England (1883)

“People generally didn't cheat in good relationships.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Something Blue

Daniel Webster photo
Alfred North Whitehead photo

“Whether or no it be for the general good, life is robbery. It is at this point that with life morals become acute. The robber requires justification.”

Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English mathematician and philosopher

1920s, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology (1929)

Henri Fayol photo

“This code is indispensable. Be it a case of commerce, industry, politics, religion, war or philanthropy in every concern there is a management function to be performed and for its performance there must be principles, that is to say acknowledged truths regarded as proven on which to rely.”

Henri Fayol (1841–1925) Developer of Fayolism

Source: General and industrial management, 1919/1949, p. 42-43 cited in: John B. Miner (2006) Historical Origins, Theoretical Foundations, And the Future. p. 114

“The power of making laws was long vested in those—and still is vested in their descendants—who followed no trade but war, and knew no handicraft but robbery and plunder.”

Thomas Hodgskin (1787–1869) British writer

Source: The Natural and Artificial Right of Property Contrasted (1832), p. 32

Ilana Mercer photo

“If America busies itself not with elective wars, but with commerce, the shift in power and prestige will be away from politicians who prosecute wars, and back to The People who produce prosperity.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

“Donald, Don’t Let Fox News Roger America… Again,” https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/09/ilana-mercer/finally-a-just-war/LewRockwell.com, September 25, 2015.
2010s, 2015

Related topics