“The capitalist … is only capital personified. His soul is the soul of capital … (he) must always think about how much money he can make from his connections to other people; the desire for profit distorts his human relationships.
Capitalism has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his ‘natural superiors’, and left no other bond between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous cash payment.
Capital … cheapens culture: it has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation.
It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms has set up that single, unconscionable freedom – Free Trade.
In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.
The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe.
It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage labourers.”
— Karl Marx