this is a quote by german economist and philosopher karl marx. it is taken from the introduction to 'CONTRIBUTION TO THE CRITIQUE OF HEGEL'S PHILOSOPHY OF LAW' (Written at the end of 1843-January 1844, Published in the 'Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher', 1844).the original text is:

[...] But no particular class in Germany has the consistency, the severity, the courage or the ruthlessness that could mark it out as the negative representative of society. No more has any estate the breadth of soul that identifies itself, even for a moment, with the soul of the nation, the genius that inspires material might to political violence, or that revolutionary audacity which flings at the adversary the defiant words: I am nothing and I should be everything. The main stem of German morals and honesty, of the classes as well as of individuals, is rather that modest egoism which asserts its limitedness and allows it to be asserted against itself. The relation of the various sections of German society is therefore not dramatic but epic. Each of them begins to be aware of itself and to settle down beside the others with all its particular claims not as soon as it is oppressed, but as soon as the circumstances of the time, without the section's own participation, create a social substratum on which it can in turn exert pressure. [...]