# Quote — Karl Marx, The German Ideology

> 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.

- Author: [Karl Marx](https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-marx.md)
- Book: [The German Ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-marx/the-german-ideology.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Marx#The_German_Ideology_(1845-1846)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [work](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work.md)
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-marx/the-german-ideology/for-as-soon

## More from this book

> It is in fact not the consciousness dominating life but the very life dominating consciousness.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-marx/the-german-ideology/it-is-in-fact.md)

> Language comes into being, like consciousness, from the basic need, from the scantiest intercourse with other human.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-marx/the-german-ideology/language-comes-into.md)

> Thus, while the refugee serfs only wished to be free to develop and assert those conditions of existence which were already there, and hence, in the end, only arrived at free labour, the proletarians, if they are to assert themselves as individuals, will have to abolish the very condition of their existence hitherto (which has, moreover, been that of all society up to the present), namely, labour. Thus they find themselves directly opposed to the form in which, hitherto, the individuals, of which society consists, have given themselves collective expression, that is, the State. In order, therefore, to assert themselves as individuals, they must overthrow the State.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-marx/the-german-ideology/thus-while-the.md)

Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [work](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work.md)