Voltairine de Cleyre Quotes - Page 2

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• As long as the working-people fold hands and pray the gods in Washington to give them work, so long they will not get it.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Hands, Giving, Long

  Voltairine de Cleyre (2012). “Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre -- Anarchist, Feminist, Genius”, p.152, SUNY Press

  17 Copy quote

• Years! Years, ye shall mix with me!
  Ye shall grow a part
  Of the laughing Sea;
  Of the moaning heart
  Of the glittered wave
  Of the sun-gleam's dart
  In the ocean-grave.
  Fair, cold, and faithless wert thou, my own!
  For that I love
  Thy heart of stone!
  From the heights above
  To the depths below,
  Where dread things move,
  
  There is naught can show
  A life so trustless! Proud be thy crown!
  Ruthless, like none, save the Sea, alone!

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Life, Ocean, Moving

  "The Dirge of the Sea". Poem by Voltairine de Cleyre, April 1891.

  8 Copy quote

• Private enterprise manages better all that to which it is equal. Anarchism declares that private enterprise, whether individual or cooperative, is equal to all the undertakings of society.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Individual, Equal, Anarchism

  Voltairine de Cleyre (2012). “Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre -- Anarchist, Feminist, Genius”, p.23, SUNY Press

  15 Copy quote

• Socialism and Communism both demand a degree of joint effort and administration which would beget more regulation than is wholly consistent with ideal Anarchism; Individualism and Mutualism, resting upon property, involve a development of the private policeman not at all compatible with my notion of freedom.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Effort, Development, Demand

  Voltairine de Cleyre, Sharon Presley, Crispin Sartwell (2005). “Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre -- Anarchist, Feminist, Genius”, p.79, SUNY Press

  8 Copy quote

• If you choose the liberty and pride and strength of the single soul, and the free fraternization of men, as the purpose which your life is to make manifest then do not sell it for tinsel. Think that your soul is strong and will hold its way; and slowly, through bitter struggle perhaps the strength will grow.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Strong, Struggle, Pride

  Voltairine de Cleyre (2012). “Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre -- Anarchist, Feminist, Genius”, p.122, SUNY Press

  7 Copy quote

• We are bound first to imform ourselves concerning so great a matter as the revolt of millions of people- what they are struggling for, what they are struggling against, and how the struggle stands- from day to day...as best you can; and second, to spread this knowledge among others, and endeavor to do what little you can to awaken the consciousness and sympathy of others.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Struggle, People, Littles

  10 Copy quote

• A man won't steal, ordinarily, unless that which he steals is something he cannot as easily get without stealing; in liberty the cost of stealing would involve greater difficulties than producing, and consequently he would not be apt to steal.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Men, Liberty, Cost

  "The Economic Tendency of Freethought". Liberty, Volume XI, #25, praxeology.net. February 15, 1890.

  8 Copy quote

• [The Catholic convent] had been like the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and there are white scars on my soul, where ignorance and superstition burnt me with their hell fire in those stifling days.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Ignorance, Fire, Shadow Of Death

  Voltairine de Cleyre (2012). “Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre -- Anarchist, Feminist, Genius”, p.161, SUNY Press

  6 Copy quote

• Among the fundamental likeness between the Revolutionary Republicans and the Anarchists is the recognition that the little must precede the great; that the local must be the basis of the general; that there can be a free federation only when there are free communities to federate; that the spirit of the latter is carried into the councils of the former, and a local tyranny may thus become an instrument for general enslavement.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Community, Fundamentals, May

  Voltairine De Cleyre (1989). “Anarchism and American Traditions”, p.5, Library of Alexandria

  12 Copy quote

• As to the American tradition of non-meddling, Anarchism asks that it be carried down to the individual himself.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Anarchy, Tradition, Individual

  Voltairine De Cleyre (1989). “Anarchism and American Traditions”, p.17, Library of Alexandria

  12 Copy quote

• The revolution is ... the blow dealt ... agains the counter force of tyranny, which has never entirely recovered from the blow, but which from then till now has gone on remolding and regrappling the instruments of governmental power, that the Revolution sought to shape and hold as defenses of liberty.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Blow, Liberty, Revolution

  Voltairine De Cleyre (1989). “Anarchism and American Traditions”, p.3, Library of Alexandria

  8 Copy quote

• No one can hate petitions worse than I, and no one has less faith in them than I. But for my champion I am willing to try any means that invades no other's right, even though I have little hope in it.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Hate, Mean, Champion

  Voltairine de Cleyre (2012). “Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre -- Anarchist, Feminist, Genius”, p.236, SUNY Press

  14 Copy quote

• But what the working-class can do, when once they grow into a solidified organization, is to show the possessing class, through a sudden cessation of all work, that the whole social structure rests on them; that the possessions of the others are absolutely worthless to them without the workers' activity; that such protests, such strikes, are inherent in the system of property and will continually recur until the whole thing is abolished - and having shown that effectively, proceed to expropriate.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Class, Organization, Social

  "Direct Action". Voltairine de Cleyre's Address in Chicago, dwardmac.pitzer.edu. January 21, 1912.

  8 Copy quote

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