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Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman Quotes

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Famous Emma Goldman Quotes

“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.”

HumansIdeasSoulMatterFactsMovingLawPoliticalJoyLiteratureSocialCausesConditionsEffectsExpressionAccountsRegardRefuseFixedComplexityWheelsNew IdeasSocial ChangeDomainHuman SoulGrindCause And EffectHuman ThoughtChariotsStationary
Author:Emma Goldman
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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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“Our institutions and conditions rest upon deep-seated ideas. To change those conditions and at the same time leave the underlying ideas and values intact means only a superficial transformation, one that cannot be permanent or bring real betterment. It is a change of form only, not of substance, as so tragically proven by Russia.”

MeanIdeasRealFormValuesConditionsTransformationInstitutionsRussiaSubstancePermanentProvenSuperficialBetterment
Book:My Disillusionment in Russia
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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.”

HumansIdeasSelfEarthChristianPainHeavenMoralitySorrowHorrorGloryTestsRemainsDenialIndifferentWorth ItHereafterEntryPassportsSelf-denialPain And Sorrow
Book:Victims of Morality, and The Failure of Christianity: Two Lectures
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“The dominant, almost general, idea of revolution - particularly the Socialist idea - is that revolution is a violent change of social conditions through which one social class, the working class, becomes dominant over another class, the capitalist class. It is the conception of a purely physical change, and as such it involves only political scene shifting and institutional rearrangements”

IdeasPoliticalSocialClassConditionsRevolutionSceneViolentConceptionCapitalistSocialistDominantWorking ClassShiftingSocial ClassSocial Conditions
Book:Red Emma Speaks: An Emma Goldman Reader
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“The conception of gods originated in fear and curiosity. Primitive man, unable to understand the phenomena of nature, and harassed by them, saw in every terrifying manifestation some sinister force expressly directed against him; and as ignorance and fear are the parents of all superstition, the troubled fancy of primitive man wove the God idea.”

MenIdeasReligionForceParentSawsIgnoranceCuriosityManifestationFancyConceptionSuperstitionsPrimitiveSinisterIgnorance And FearPrimitive Man
Book:Mother Earth, a Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Social Science and Literature
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