“Luxury is the opposite of the naturally necessary.”

—  Karl Marx

Grundrisse (1857-1858)
Source: Notebook V, The Chapter on Capital, p. 448.

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 "Luxury is the opposite of the naturally necessary." by Karl Marx?
Karl Marx photo
Karl Marx 290
German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and … 1818–1883

Related quotes

Henry Ward Beecher photo

“A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessaries of life.”

Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887) American clergyman and activist

Eyes and Ears (1862)
Miscellany

John Lothrop Motley photo

“Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with its necessaries.”

John Lothrop Motley (1814–1877) American historian and diplomat

Quoted from Motley's conversation by his friend Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (Boston: Phillips, Sampson, 1858), ch. 6, p. 143.

Arthur Schopenhauer photo

“Epicurus, the great teacher of happiness, has correctly and finely divided human needs into three classes. First there are the natural and necessary needs which, if they are not satisfied, cause pain. Consequently, they are only victus et amictus [food and clothing] and are easy to satisfy. Then we have those that are natural yet not necessary, that is, the needs for sexual satisfaction. … These needs are more difficult to satisfy. Finally, there are those that are neither natural nor necessary, the needs for luxury, extravagance, pomp, and splendour, which are without end and very difficult to satisfy.”

Arthur Schopenhauer book Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life

E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, p. 346
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life

Socrates photo

“Contentment is natural wealth; luxury, artificial poverty.”

Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher

As reported by Charles Simmons in A Laconic Manual and Brief Remarker, containing over a thousand subjects alphabetically and systematically arranged (North Wrentham, Mass. 1852), p. 103 http://books.google.de/books?id=YOAyAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA103&dq=socrates. However, the original source of this statement is unknown.

Cf. Joseph Addison in The Spectator No. 574 Friday, July 30, 1714, p. 655 http://books.google.de/books?id=K1cdAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA655&dq=socrates: In short, content is equivalent to wealth, and luxury to poverty; or, to give the thought a more agreeable turn, "content is natural wealth," says Socrates: to which I shall add, "luxury is artificial poverty.".
Attributed

Epicurus photo

“Of our desires some are natural and necessary, others are natural but not necessary; and others are neither natural nor necessary, but are due to groundless opinion.”

Epicurus (-341–-269 BC) ancient Greek philosopher

29
Sovereign Maxims

Buckminster Fuller photo

“The opposite of nature is impossible.”

Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist

Public lecture at Columbia University (Spring 1965), quoted in "Buckminster Fuller: Thinking Out Loud" at PBS (12 December 2001) http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/r-buckminster-fuller-about-r-buckminster-fuller/599/
1960s

Livy photo

“The state is suffering from two opposite vices, avarice and luxury; two plagues which, in the past, have been the ruin of every great empire.”

Livy (-59–17 BC) Roman historian

Source: History of Rome, Book XXXIV, sec. 4

Gottfried Leibniz photo

“There are two kinds of truths: those of reasoning and those of fact. The truths of reasoning are necessary and their opposite is impossible; the truths of fact are contingent and their opposites are possible.”

Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716) German mathematician and philosopher

Il y a aussi deux sortes de vérités, celles de Raisonnement et celle de Fait. Les vérités de Raisonnement sont nécessaires et leur opposé est impossible, et celles de Fait sont contingentes et leur opposé est possible.
La monadologie (33).
The Monadology (1714)

Sholem Asch photo

“Not the power to remember, but its very opposite, the power to forget, is a necessary condition for our existence.”

Sholem Asch (1880–1957) Polish-American novelist, dramatist, essayist

The Nazarene, 1939, p. 3.

Felix Adler photo

“The question what to believe is perhaps the most momentous that anyone can put to himself. Our beliefs are not to be classed among the luxuries, but among the necessaries of existence.”

Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer

Section 9 : Ethical Outlook
Founding Address (1876), Life and Destiny (1913)
Context: The question what to believe is perhaps the most momentous that anyone can put to himself. Our beliefs are not to be classed among the luxuries, but among the necessaries of existence. They become particularly important in times of trouble. They are like the life-boats carried by ocean ships. As long as the sea is smooth and there is every appearance of a prosperous voyage, the passengers seldom take note of the boats or inquire into their sea-worthiness. But when the storm breaks and danger approaches, then the capacity of the boats and their soundness become matters of the first importance.

Related topics