The Bourgeoisie

"The bourgeoisie has played in history a most revolutionary part.
The bourgeoisie, where it has conquered power, has destroyed all feudal, patriarchal, and idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder all the many-coloured feudal bonds which united men to their 'natural superiors,' and has left no other tie between man and man but naked self interest and callous cash payment. It has drowned religious ecstasy, chivalrous enthusiasm, and middle class sentimentality in the ice-cold water of egotistical calculation. It has transformed personal worth into mere exchange value, and substituted for dearly bought chartered Freedoms the one and only unconscionable freedom of Free Trade. It has, in one word, replaced an exploitation veiled by religious and political illusions by exploitation open, direct, and brutal.
The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every profession previously venerated and regarded as honourable. It has turned doctor, lawyer, priest, poet, and philosopher into paid wage workers.
The bourgeoisie has torn away the veil of sentiment from the family relation, and reduced it to a mere money relation."
-Marx and Engels