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Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman Quotes

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Famous Emma Goldman Quotes

“Do not all theists insist that there can be no morality, no justice, honesty or fidelity without the belief in a Divine Power? Based upon fear and hope, such morality has always been a vile product, imbued partly with self-righteousness, partly with hypocrisy. As to truth, justice, and fidelity, who have been their brave exponents and daring proclaimers? Nearly always the godless ones: the Atheists; they lived, fought, and died for them. They knew that justice, truth, and fidelity are not conditioned in heaven, but that they are related to and interwoven with the tremendous changes going on in the social and material life of the human race; not fixed and eternal, but fluctuating, even as life itself.”

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Book:The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever
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“Redemption through the Cross is worse than damnation, because of the terrible burden it imposes upon humanity, because of the effect it has on the human soul, fettering and paralyzing it with the weight of the burden exacted through the death of Christ.”

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Book:Victims of Morality, and The Failure of Christianity: Two Lectures
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“Consciously or unconsciously, most theists see in gods and devils, heaven and hell, reward and punishment, a whip to lash the people into obedience, meekness and contentment.... The philosophy of atheism expresses the expansion and growth of the human mind. The philosophy of theism, if we can call it a philosophy, is static and fixed.”

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Author:Emma Goldman
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“The worker who knows the cause of his misery, who understands the make-up of our iniquitous social and industrial system can do more for himself and his kind than Christ and the followers of Christ have ever done for humanity; certainly more than meek patience, ignorance, and submission have done.”

KnowsKindDoneHumanitySocialCausesChristCan DoAtheismIgnoranceMiseryWorkersPositive AtheismFollowersSubmissionMeek
Book:Mother Earth, a Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Social Science and Literature
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“I was called before the head matron, a tall woman with a stolid face. She began taking my pedigree. What religion? was the first question. None, I am an atheist. Atheism is prohibited here. You will have to go to church. I replied that I would do nothing of the kind. I did not believe in anything the Church stood for and, not being a hypocrite, I would not attend.”

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Book:Living My Life (Two Volumes in One)
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“How to raise this dead level of theistic belief is really a matter of life and death for all denominations. Therefore their tolerance; but it is a tolerance not of understanding; but of weakness.”

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Book:Mother Earth, a Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Social Science and Literature
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“Have not all theists painted their Deity as the god of love and goodness? Yet after thousands of years of such preachments the gods remain deaf to the agony of the human race. Confucius cares not for the poverty, squalor and misery of the people of China. Buddha remains undisturbed in his philosophical indifference to the famine and starvation of outraged Hindoos; Jahve continues deaf to the bitter cry of Israel; while Jesus refuses to rise from the dead against his Christians who are butchering each other.”

PeopleYearsHumansCareChristianJesusRacePovertyAtheismCryGoodnessPhilosophicalRemainsMiseryRefuseIsraelChinaPositive AtheismBitterIndifferenceHuman RaceAgonyDeafDeitiesStarvationFamineOutragedTheistSqualor
Book:Mother Earth, a Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Social Science and Literature
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“Atheism ... in its philosophic aspect refuses allegiance not merely to a definite concept of God, but it refuses all servitude to the God idea, and opposes the theistic principle as such. Gods in their individual function are not half as pernicious as the principle of theism which represents the belief in a supernatural, or even omnipotent, power to rule the earth and man upon it. It is the absolutism of theism, its pernicious influence upon humanity, its paralyzing effect upon thought and action, which Atheism is fighting with all its power.”

MenIdeasActionEarthHumanityFightingIndividualBeliefHalfPrinciplesAtheismInfluenceEffectsConceptsAspectFunctionRefusePositive AtheismDefiniteAllegianceServitudePerniciousTheismOmnipotentThoughts And ActionsPhilosophicAbsolutism
Book:Mother Earth Bulletin
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“Imagine, capitalist America also divides the anarchists into two categories, philosophic and criminal. The first are accepted in highest circles; one of them is even high in the councils of the Wilson Administration. The second category, to which we have the honor of belonging, is persecuted and often imprisoned. Yours also seems to be a distinction without a difference. Don't you think so?”

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Author:Emma Goldman
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“The philosophy of Atheism represents a concept of life without any metaphysical Beyond or Divine Regulator. It is the concept of an actual, real world with its liberating, expanding and beautifying possibilities, as against an unreal world, which, with its spirits, oracles, and mean contentment has kept humanity in helpless degradation.”

WorldMeanRealPhilosophySpiritHumanityAtheismPossibilityDivineConceptsAtheistPositive AtheismContentmentReal WorldAnarchyHelplessMetaphysicalExpandingLiberatingUnrealDegradationOraclesRegulatorsUnreal World
Book:Mother Earth Bulletin
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“The philosophy of Atheism has its root in the earth, in this life; its aim is the emancipation of the human race from all God-heads, be they Judaic, Christian, Mohammedan, Buddhistic, Brahmanistic, or what not. Mankind has been punished long and heavily for having created its gods, nothing but pain and persecution, have been man's lot since gods began. There is but one way out of this blunder. Man must break his fetters which have chained him to the gates of heaven and hell, so that he can begin to fashion out of his reawakened and illumined consciousness a new world upon the earth.”

MenWorldWayHumansLongHas BeensPhilosophyEarthChristianPainReligionHeavenRaceConsciousnessBreakHellAtheismMankindFashionRootsAimOne WayThis LifeHuman RaceGatesNew WorldPersecutionHeaven And HellEmancipationBlundersChainedFettersGates Of Heaven
Author:Emma Goldman
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