Karl Marx

"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."

ATTRIBUTION: Karl Marx (1818–1883), German political theorist, social philosopher. repr. In Karl Marx: Selected Works, vol. 2 (1942). Paraphrase of the opening sentences of The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852).

The actual words were: “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.”

"The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people."

ATTRIBUTION: Karl Marx (1818–1883), German political theorist, social philosopher. repr. In Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts (1844).