Marx
- on 'state socialism' and the state:"where the state is itself a capitalist producer, as in the exploitation of mines, forests, etc., its product is a ‘commodity’ and hence possesses the specific character of every other commodity."

"Marx stressed the parasitic and transitory character of the state:[...] the seeming supreme independent existence of the state is only seeming and that it is in all its forms an excrescence of society; just as its appearance itself arises only at a certain stage of social development, it disappears again as soon as society has reached a stage not yet attained"

"For Marx, it was clear that the establishment of a socialist system of production and consumption would be a long and complex process, certainly not achievable simply through the capture of the palace of power. Indeed, there would be nothing “specifically socialist about [it].”"

On racism:"Marx copied George’s observation that “communism or socialism ”had failed to win the support of most workers, because “the presence of the Chinese ha[d] largely engrossed the attention of the labouring classes, offering what has seemed to them a sufficient explanation of the fall of wages and difficulty of finding employment.” Marx was well aware that conflicts among workers, particularly after waves of migration, were a powerful weapon that the bourgeoisie could use to distract them from the real problems of capitalist society."

On Communism and Socialism:

Marx understood communism as "a higher form of society, a society in which the full and free development of every individual forms the ruling principle."

"Marx carefully avoided formulations that might suggest a universal model of socialist society [...]. This is why [...] he intimated that “writing recipes for the cook-shops of the future” was by no means one of his interests, and why in 1879–1880 [...] he wrote categorically: “I have never established a ‘socialist system.’”"

On the idea that a country needs to go through fixed stages of development to bring about a socialist society:
“events of striking similarity, taking place in different historical contexts, [lead] to totally disparate results.” To understand real historical transformations, it was necessary to study individual phenomena separately; only then could they be compared with one another. It would never be possible to interpret them “with the master-key of a general historico-philosophical theory, whose supreme virtue consists in being supra-historical.”"

"a key conclusion that Marx reached: hypotheses about the possible course of history should not base themselves on abstract laws but always be commensurate with the diversity of existing contexts. [...] Guided by doubt and hostility toward past schematism and new dogmatisms arising in his name, he thought it possible that the revolution would break out in conditions and forms that he had never considered before. The future was in the hands of the working class and depended on the capacity of its organizations and struggles to bring about profound social upheavals"

- The Last Years of Karl Marx, Marcello Musto

The book also talks about other subjects, in particular Marx's condemnation of colonialism and imperialism in his trip in Algiers

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"The problem with practice what you preach capitalism is that it has been tried, and the results are well-documented. It was under this approach that financial markets collapsed regularly throughout most of the history of capitalism."

"Overcoming the social and ecological crisis must involve the renewal of individuality. Contemporary individualism, defined as freedom from social obligations, is an alienating conception of selfhood that encourages competition and egotism. By contrast, Communalism maintains that a well rounded, developed self only results from empowered participation in one's communities and through the bonds of cooperative relationships with the members of those communities"

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