Anarchism Quotes - Page 2

• We anarchists do not want to emancipate the people; we want the people to emancipate themselves.

  Errico Malatesta

  Freedom, People, Want

  Errico Malatesta (2015). “Life and Ideas: The Anarchist Writings of Errico Malatesta”, p.83, PM Press

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• I say: liberate yourself as far as you can, and you have done your part; for it is not given to every one to break through all limits, or, more expressively, not to everyone is that a limit which is a limit for the rest. Consequently, do not tire yourself with toiling at the limits of others; enough if you tear down yours. He who overturns one of his limits may have shown others the way and the means; the overturning of their limits remains their affair.

  Max Stirner

  Mean, Break Through, Tears

  "The Ego and Its Own (1844)". Book by Max Stirner, translated by Benjamin Tucker, New York edition, p. 187, 1907.

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• Anarchy is... a form of government or constitution in which public and private consciousness, formed through the development of science and law, is alone sufficient to maintain order and guarantee all liberties.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Government, Order, Law

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's letter of 1864, as quoted in "Selected writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon" edited by Stewart Edwards (p. 92), 1969.

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• The anarchists put the thing upside down. They declare that the proletarian revolution must begin by doing away with the political organization of the state. But to destroy it at such a moment would be to destroy the only organism by means of which the victorious proletariat can assert its newly-conquered power, hold down its capitalist adversaries, and carry out that economic revolution of society without which the whole victory must end in a new defeat and a mass slaughter of the workers similar to those after the Paris commune.

  Friedrich Engels

  Mean, Organization, Paris

  Letter to Philipp Van Patten, www.marxists.org. April 18, 1883.

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• Oh judge! Your damn laws! The good people don't need them, and the bad people don't obey them.

  Ammon Hennacy

  Responsibility, Law, People

  "Voices from the Catholic Worker". Book by Rosalie Riegle Troester (p. 114), 1993.

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• As an anarchist, I cannot reconcile myself to any government.

  Peter Kropotkin

  Government, Anarchist, Reconcile

  "Peter Kropotkin: From Prince to Rebel". Book by George Woodcock and Ivan Avakumović, p. 428, 1990.

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• Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name!

  Emma Goldman

  Nature, Names, Crime

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism: Top Crime Collections”, p.34, 谷月社

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• Anarchism, to me, means not only the denial of authority, not only a new economy, but a revision of the principles of morality. It means the development of the individual as well as the assertion of the individual. It means self-responsibility, and not leader worship.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Mean, Responsibility, Self

  Voltairine de Cleyre (2012). “Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre -- Anarchist, Feminist, Genius”, p.156, SUNY Press

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• Anarchism is that political philosophy which advocates the maximization of individual responsibility and the reduction of concentrated power regal, dictatorial, parliamentary: the institutions which go loosely by the name of "government" to a vanishing minimum.

  Alex Comfort

  Philosophy, Responsibility, Government

  In the Preface of "People Without Government" by Harold Barclay, p. 7, 1982.

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• People sometimes inquire what form of government is most suitable for an artist to live under. To this question there is only one answer. The form of government that is most suitable to the artist is no government at all.

  Oscar Wilde

  Artist, Government, People

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.282, University of Chicago Press

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• I am not going to claim that modern anarchism has any direct relation to Roman jurisprudence; but I do claim that it has its basis in the laws of nature rather than in the state of nature.

  Herbert Read

  Law, Jurisprudence, Literature

  Herbert Read (1963). “Selected Writings: Poetry and Criticism”

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• The two principles referred to are Authority and Liberty, and the names of the two schools of Socialistic thought which fully and unreservedly represent one or the other of them are, respectively, State Socialism and Anarchism.

  Benjamin Tucker

  School, Names, Two

  Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (1972). “State Socialism and Anarchism and Other Essays”, Ralph Myles Pub

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• 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, Enterprise

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

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• If you say that you reject violence when it exceeds the limits imposed by the needs of defense, they accuse you of pacifism, without understanding that violence is the whole essence of authoritarianism, just as the repudiation of violence is the whole essence of anarchism.

  Errico Malatesta

  Essence, Understanding, Needs

  Errico Malatesta (2015). “Life and Ideas: The Anarchist Writings of Errico Malatesta”, p.138, PM Press

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• Is anarchism desirable? Well, who does not seek freedom? What man, unless willing to declare himself in bondage, would care to call any control agreeable? Think about it!

  Johann Most

  Men, Thinking, Doe

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• Anarchism is opposed to states, armies, slavery, the wages system, the landlord system, prisons, monopoly capitalism, oligopoly capitalism, state capitalism, bureaucracy, meritocracy, theocracy, revolutionary governments, patriarchy, matriarchy, monarchy, oligarchy, protection rackets, intimidation by gangsters, and every other kind of coercive institution. In other words, anarchism opposes government in all its forms.

  Donald Rooum

  Army, Government, Wages

  "What Is Anarchism? An Introduction". Book by Donald Rooum, August 1, 1992.

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• Anarchists generally make use if the word "State" to mean all the collection of institutions, political, legislative, judicial, military, financial, etc., by means of which management of their own affairs, the guidance of their personal conduct, and the care of ensuring their own safety are taken from the people and confided to certain individuals, and these, whether by usurpation or delegation, are invested with the right to make laws over and for all, and to constrain the public to respect them, making use of the collective force of the community to this end.

  Errico Malatesta

  Military, Taken, Mean

  "Anarchy". Pamphlet by Errico Malatesta, www.marxists.org. 1891.

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• Anarchy, the absence of a master, of a sovereign.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Anarchy, Sovereign, Absence

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (2011). “Property is Theft!: A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Anthology”, p.134, AK Press

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• Jesus was an anarchist savior. That's what the Gospels tell us.

  Ivan Illich

  Jesus, Anarchist, Savior

  "The Educational enterprise in the Light of the Gospel". Lecture in Chicago, www.davidtinapple.com. November 13, 1988.

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• ANARCHISM (from the Gr. , and , contrary to authority), the name given to a principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government harmony in such a society being obtained, not by submission to law, or by obedience to any authority, but by free agreements concluded between the various groups, territorial and professional, freely constituted for the sake of production and consumption, as also for the satisfaction of the infinite variety of needs and aspirations of a civilized being.

  Peter Kropotkin

  Government, Agreement, Law

  Peter Kropotkin (2012). “Anarchism: A Collection of Revolutionary Writings”, p.284, Courier Corporation

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• We must therefore turn to history for enlightenment; here we find that none of the proclaimed anarchist groups correspond to the libertarian position, that even the best of them have unrealistic and socialistic elements in their doctrines. Furthermore, we find that all of the current anarchists are irrational collectivists, and therefore at opposite poles from our position. We must therefore conclude that we are not anarchists, and that those who call us anarchists are not on firm etymological ground, and are being completely unhistorical.

  Murray Rothbard

  Opposites, Enlightenment, Groups

  "Are Libertarians 'Anarchists'?". Faith and Freedom, unpublished, mid-1950s.

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• I'm not an anarchist any longer, because I've concluded that anarchism is an impractical ideal.

  Robert Anton Wilson

  Anarchist, Ideals

  "Robert Anton Wilson: Searching For Cosmic Intelligence". Interview with Jeffrey Elliot, 1980.

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• 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

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• It is often said that Anarchists live in a world of dreams to come, and do not see the things which happen today. We do see them only too well, and in their true colors, and that is what makes us carry the hatchet into the forest of prejudice that besets us.

  Peter Kropotkin

  Dream, Color, Prejudice

  Peter Kropotkin, George Woodcock (1993). “Fugitive writings”, Black Rose Books Ltd

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• ANARCHY, or the government of each man by himself or as the English say, self -government.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Men, Self, Anarchy

  "The Principle of Federation". Book by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, 1863.

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