2 Historical Quotes You May Not Have Seen Before, Plus a Follow-up Question To Each

The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling class; and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible.

Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionizing the mode of production

— The Communist Manifesto (emphasis added), Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1848

Follow-up question: Has “real communism” been tried?

The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nation's history — the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation's destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.

— What to the Slave is the Fourth of July, Frederick Douglass, 1852

Follow-up question: Was America founded on racist principles/is it a fundamentally racist country? (Even if some Americans are racist.¹)

1. Douglass’s answer to the question posed by the title of his speech: “A day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim.” It was 1852, after all.