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Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman Quotes

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Famous Emma Goldman Quotes

“The experience of every-day life fully proves that the armed individual is invariably anxious to try his strength. The same is historically true of governments. Really peaceful countries do not waste life and energy in war preparations, with the result that peace is maintained.”

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Book:Anarchism: Top Crime Collections
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“Yes, authority, coercion, and dependence rest on the mass, but never freedom or the free unfoldment of the individual, never the birth of a free society. The Socialist demagogues know that as well as I, but they maintain the myth of the virtues of the majority, because their very scheme of life means the perpetuation of power.”

KnowsWellsMeanIndividualVirtueBirthAuthorityMassMajorityMythAnarchySchemesSocialistDependenceCoercionFree SocietyLife Means
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“Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name! Every fool, from king to policeman, from the flatheaded parson to the visionless dabbler in science, presumes to speak authoritatively of human nature. The greater the mental charlatan, the more definite his insistence on the wickedness and weaknesses of human nature.”

HumansHas BeensNamesSpeakPoorGreaterHuman NatureCrimeFoolKingsWeaknessCommittedHorribleAnarchyDefiniteWickednessPolicemenInsistenceCharlatans
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“John Burroughs has stated that experimental study of animals in captivity is absolutely useless. Their character, their habits, their appetites undergo a complete transformation when torn from their soil in field and forest. With human nature caged in a narrow space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its potentialities?”

HumansCharacterSpeakSpaceAnimalStudyHuman NatureFieldsHabitTransformationForestsUselessSoilAnarchyAppetiteTornSubmissionCaptivityCagedBurroughs
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“The emotions of the ignorant man are continuously kept at a pitch by the most blood-curdling stories about Anarchism. Not a thing too outrageous to be employed against this philosophy and its exponents. Therefore Anarchism represents to the unthinking what the proverbial bad man does to the child,-a black monster bent on swallowing everything; in short, destruction and violence.”

MenChildrenDoePhilosophyStoriesBlackEmotionViolenceBloodDestructionMonstersIgnorantAnarchyBentEmployedAnarchismOutrageousBad ManSwallowingProverbialExponents
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“Nora leaves her husband, not-as the stupid critic would have it-because she is tired of her responsibilities or feels the need of woman's rights, but because she has come to know that for eight years she had lived with a stranger and borne him children. Can there be anything more humiliating, more degrading than a life-long proximity between two strangers? No need for the woman to know anything of the man, save his income. As to the knowledge of the woman-what is there to know except that she has a pleasing appearance?”

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Book:Marriage and Love
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“Order derived through submission and maintained by terror is not much of a safe guaranty; yet that is the only "order" that governments have ever maintained. True social harmony grows naturally out of solidarity of interests. In a society where those who always work never have anything, while those who never work enjoy everything, solidarity of interests is non-existent; hence social harmony is but a myth.... Thus the entire arsenal of governments - laws, police, soldiers, the courts, legislatures, prisons - is strenuously engaged in "harmonizing" the most antagonistic elements in society.”

GovernmentLawOrderSocialGrowsEnjoyInterestSocietySafeElementsHarmonyPoliceCourtPrisonSoldierTerrorMythEngagedSolidaritySubmissionLegislatureArsenalSocial Harmony
Author:Emma Goldman
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“The greater the mental charlatan, the more definite his insistence on the wickedness and weaknesses of human nature. Yet how can anyone speak of it today, with every soul in a prison, with every heart fettered, wounded, and maimed?... With human nature caged in a narrow space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its potentialities?”

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Author:Emma Goldman
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“The political superstition is still holding sway over the hearts and minds of the masses, but the true lovers of liberty will have no more to do with it. Instead, they believe with Stirner that man has as much liberty as he is willing to take. Anarchism therefore stands for direct action, the open defiance of, and resistance to, all laws and restrictions, economic, social, and moral. But defiance and resistance are illegal. Therein lies the salvation of man. Everything illegal necessitates integrity, self-reliance and courage.”

MenMindBelieveHeartStillsSelfActionLawPoliticalLyingSocialLibertyMoralEconomicWillingLoversIntegrityMassDirectSalvationResistanceRevolutionaryIllegalSuperstitionsSelf RelianceHeart And MindRelianceRestrictionAnarchismDefianceTrue LoversDirect Action
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“Direct action against the authority in the shop, direct action against the authority of the law, direct action against the invasive, meddlesome authority of our moral code, is the logical, consistent method of Anarchism. Will it not lead to a revolution? Indeed, it will. No real social change has ever come without a revolution. People are either not familiar with their history, or they have not yet learned that revolution is but thought carried into action.”

PeopleRealActionLawSocialMoralRevolutionAuthorityDirectMethodFamiliarCodeRevolutionaryShopsConsistentLogicalSocial ChangeAnarchismMoral CodeDirect ActionMeddlesome
Book:Anarchism and Other Essays
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