Alexander Berkman Quotes

• War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder.

  Alexander Berkman

  Peace, War, Stupid

  Alexander Berkman (2010). “Now and After: the ABC of Anarchist Communism”, p.30, Lulu.com

  64 Copy quote

• Man's inhumanity to man is not the last word. The truth lies deeper. It is economic slavery, the savage struggle for a crumb, that has converted mankind into wolves and sheep.

  Alexander Berkman

  Lying, Struggle, Men

  Alexander Berkman (1912). “Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist”

  54 Copy quote

• What is this thing we call government? Is it anything but organized violence? The law orders you to obey, and if you don't obey, it will compel you by force - all governments, all law and authority finally rest on force and violence, on punishment or fear of punishment.

  Alexander Berkman

  Government, Order, Law

  27 Copy quote

• Anarchy: It is NOT bombs, disorder or chaos. It is NOT robbery and murder. It is NOT a war of each against all. It is NOT a return to barbarism or to the wild state of man. Anarchism is the very opposite of all that.

  Alexander Berkman

  War, Men, Opposites

  Alexander Berkman, Jewish Anarchist Federation (1929). “Now and after: the A B C of communist anarchism”

  41 Copy quote

• When the highwayman holds his gun to your head, you turn your valuables over to him. You 'consent' alright, but you do so because you cannot help yourself, because you are compelled by his gun. Are you not compelled to work for an employer? Your need compels you, just as the highwayman's gun.

  Alexander Berkman

  Gun, Needs, Helping

  Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman (2005). “The ABC of Anarchism”, p.14, Courier Corporation

  45 Copy quote

• Inhumanity is the keynote of stupidity in power.

  Alexander Berkman

  Stupidity, Inhumanity

  Alexander Berkman (1912). “Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist”

  15 Copy quote

• The cure for evil and disorder is more liberty, not suppression.

  Alexander Berkman

  Evil, Liberty, Libertarian

  Alexander Berkman (2003). “What is Anarchism?”, p.234, AK Press

  23 Copy quote

• Anarchism means voluntary co-operation instead of forced participation. It means harmony and order in place of interference and disorder.

  Alexander Berkman

  Mean, Order, Harmony

  Alexander Berkman (2003). “What is Anarchism?”, p.151, AK Press

  32 Copy quote

• The man who can face vilification and disgrace, who can stand up against the popular current, even against his friends and his country when he know he is right, who can defy those in authority over him, who can take punishment and prison and remain steadfast-that is a man of courage. The fellow whom you taunt as a 'slacker' because he refuses to turn murderer-he needs courage. But do you need much courage just to obey orders, to do as you are told and to fall in line with thousands of others to the tune of general approval and the Star Spangled Banner?

  Alexander Berkman

  Country, Stars, War

  Alexander Berkman (2010). “Now and After: the ABC of Anarchist Communism”, p.30, Lulu.com

  15 Copy quote

• If you can see, hear, feel, and think, you should know that King Dollar rules the United States, and that the workers are robbed and exploited in this country to the heart's content of the masters.If you are not deaf, dumb, and blind, then you know that the American bourgeois democracy and capitalistic civilization are the worst enemies of labor and progress, and that instead of protecting them, you should help to fight to destroy them.

  Alexander Berkman

  Country, Kings, Heart

  22 Copy quote

• In short, Anarchism means a condition or society where all men and women are free, and where all enjoy equally the benefits of an ordered and sensible life.

  Alexander Berkman

  Mean, Men, Benefits

  Alexander Berkman (2010). “Now and After: the ABC of Anarchist Communism”, p.10, Lulu.com

  22 Copy quote

• ...existence has become an unreasoning, wild dance around the golden calf, a mad worship of God Mammon. In that dance and in that worship man has sacrificed all his finer qualities of the heart and soul — kindness and justice, honor and manhood, compassion and sympathy with his fellowman.

  Alexander Berkman

  Money, Kindness, Heart

  Alexander Berkman (2010). “Now and After: the ABC of Anarchist Communism”, p.22, Lulu.com

  18 Copy quote

• Socialism, like Christianity destroyed itself to gain power

  Alexander Berkman

  Gains, Socialism, Christianity

  12 Copy quote

• Certainly the worker has nothing to lose by a change from government and capitalism to a condition of no government, of anarchy.

  Alexander Berkman

  Government, Anarchy, Nothing To Lose

  Alexander Berkman (1929). “What is Communist Anarchism?”, New York : Dover Publications

  20 Copy quote

• War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood. It degrades and stupefies with the sense that you are not responsible, that 'tis not yours to think and reason why, but to do and die,' like the hundred thousand others doomed like yourself. War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder.

  Alexander Berkman

  Peace, War, Mean

  Alexander Berkman (2010). “Now and After: the ABC of Anarchist Communism”, p.30, Lulu.com

  14 Copy quote

• Are you not compelled to work for an employer? Your need compels you just as the highwayman’s gun. You must live … You can’t work for yourself … The factories, machinery, and tools belong to the employing class, so you must hire yourself out to that class in order to work and live. Whatever you work at, whoever your employer may be, it always comes to the same: you must workfor him. You can’t help yourself. You are compelled.

  Alexander Berkman

  Gun, Order, Class

  Alexander Berkman (2010). “Now and After: the ABC of Anarchist Communism”, p.17, Lulu.com

  13 Copy quote

• War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood.

  Alexander Berkman

  Peace, War, Spirit

  Alexander Berkman (2010). “Now and After: the ABC of Anarchist Communism”, p.30, Lulu.com

  10 Copy quote

• It is the system, rather than individuals, that is the source of pollution and degradation. My prison-house environment is but another manifestation of the Midas-hand, whose cursed touch turns everything to the brutal service of Mammon.

  Alexander Berkman

  Hands, House, Degradation

  Alexander Berkman (1912). “Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist”

  13 Copy quote

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