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Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman Quotes

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Famous Emma Goldman Quotes

“Anarchism, the great leaven of thought, is today permeating every phase of human endeavor.... It is the philosophy of the sovereignty of the individual. It is the theory of social harmony. It is the great, surging, living truth that is reconstructing the world, and that will usher in the Dawn.”

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Book:Anarchism: Top Crime Collections
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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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“Peace or harmony between the sexes and individuals does not necessarily depend on a superficial equalization of human beings; nor does it call for the elimination of individual traits and peculiarities. The problem that confronts us today, and which the nearest future is to solve, is how to be one's self and yet in oneness with others, to feel deeply with all human beings and still retain one's own characteristic qualities.”

FeelsHumansDoeStillsSelfProblemTodayIndividualSexHuman BeingsQualityDependsHarmonySolveOnenessCharacteristicsTraitsSuperficialElimination
Book:Anarchism and Other Essays
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“Never can a new idea move within the law. It matters not whether that idea pertains to political and social changes or to any other domain of human thought and expression - to science, literature, music; in fact, everything that makes for freedom and joy and beauty must refuse to move within the law. How can it be otherwise? The law is stationary, fixed, mechanical, 'a chariot wheel' which grinds all alike without regard to time, place and condition, without ever taking into account cause and effect, without ever going into the complexity of the human soul.”

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Author:Emma Goldman
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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.”

PeopleIfsMindHumansPhilosophyHeavenGrowthHellAtheismDevilRewardsPunishmentObedienceFixedContentmentHuman MindExpansionWhipsStaticHeaven And HellLashesMeeknessTheismTheistReward And Punishment
Author:Emma Goldman
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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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“Emancipation should make it possible for woman to be human in the truest sense. Everything within her that craves assertion and activity should reach its fullest expression; all artificial barriers should be broken, and the road towards greater freedom cleared of every trace of centuries of submission and slavery.”

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Book:Emma Goldman
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“The Christian religion and morality extols the glory of the Hereafter, and therefore remains indifferent to the horrors of the earth. Indeed, the idea of self-denial and of all that makes for pain and sorrow is its test of human worth, its passport to the entry into heaven.”

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Book:Victims of Morality, and The Failure of Christianity: Two Lectures
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“Crime is naught but misdirected energy. So long as every institution of today, economic, political, social, and moral, conspires to misdirect human energy into wrong channels; so long as most people are out of place doing the things they hate to do, living a life they loathe to live, crime will be inevitable, and all the laws on the statutes can only increase, but never do away with, crime.”

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Book:Anarchism: Top Crime Collections
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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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“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.”

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Book:Anarchism: Top Crime Collections
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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?”

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Book:Anarchism: Top Crime Collections
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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?”

HumansHeartSoulTodaySpeakSpaceGreaterHuman NatureWeaknessPrisonWoundedDefiniteSubmissionWickednessInsistenceCagedCharlatans
Author:Emma Goldman
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