One day, Jenny and Laura, as a game, asked their father a series of questions, to which the answers are supposed to constitute a sort of “confession”. The questionnaire and Marx’s answers were typed into English and date from 1860-1865. The transcript was published for the first time in Die Neue Zeit, 1913.
Question: The quality that you most appreciate:
Answer: In people, simplicity; in men, strength; in women, weakness.
Q: Your main trait:
A: Singleness of purpose.
Q: Idea of happiness:
A: The fight.
Q: Idea of misery:
A: Submission.
Q: The flaw you pardon most:
A: Trust granted without sufficient reflection.
Q: The vice you hate most:
A: Servility.
Q: Your occupation of choice:
A: Bookworming.
Q: Favorite poets:
A: Shakespeare, Aeschylus, Goethe.
Q: Favorite prose writer:
A: Diderot.
Q: Your antipathy:
A: Martin Tupper (British colonialist and racist writer).
Q: Your hero:
A: Spartacus (leader of a rebellion by Roman slaves), Kepler (astronomer).
Q: Your heroine:
A: Gretchen (character in the book of Goethe’s Faust)
Q: Favorite flower:
A: Laurel.
Q: Favorite color:
R: Red.
Q: Favorite name:
A: Laura, Jenny.
Q: Your favorite dish:
A: Fish.
Q: Your maxim:
A: Nothing human is alien to me.
Q: Favorite motto:
A: Doubt everything.
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