[I]t is precisely the advantage of the new trend that we do not dogmatically anticipate the world, but only want to find the new world through criticism of the old one… but if constructing the future and settling everything for all times are not our affair, it is all the more clear what we have to accomplish at present: I am referring to ruthless criticism of all that exists, ruthless both in the sense of not being afraid of the results it arrives at and in the sense of being just as little afraid of conflict with the powers that be.
Karl Marx, Letters from Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, September, 1843 in Collected Works, Volume 3 (New York: International Publishers, 1975), 142-43.
“criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers from the chains, not so that man may live without fantasy or consolation, but so that he will shake off the chains and cull the living flower.” — college yearbook, my reply to ‘what is your favorite quote’