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Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman Quotes

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Famous Emma Goldman Quotes

“If I were to give a summary of the tendency of our times, I would say, Quantity. The multitude, the mass spirit, dominates everywhere, destroying quality. Our entire life--production, politics, and education--rests on quantity, on numbers. The worker who once took pride in the thoroughness and quality of his work, has been replaced by brainless, incompetent automatons, who turn out enormous quantities of things, valueless to themselves, and generally injurious to the rest of mankind. Thus quantity, instead of adding to life's comforts and peace, has merely increased man's burden.”

IfsMenGivingHas BeensSpiritTurnsNumbersQualityMankindPrideComfortMassWorkersProductionsBurdenEnormousTendenciesOur TimeDestroyingQuantityReplacedMultitudesIncompetentSummaryValuelessThoroughnessBrainlessEnormous Quantities
Book:Anarchism and Other Essays
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“Some people never seem to learn from experience. No matter how often they had seen the lion devour the lamb, they continued to cling to the hope that the nature of the beast might change. If only the lion could get to know the lamb better, they argued, or talk matters over.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsMatterRealitySeemsMightPowerBeastLionsLambsWishful ThinkingLearning Experience
Book:Living My Life (Two Volumes in One)
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“Under miserable conditions of life, any vision of the possibility of better things makes the present misery more intolerable, and spurs those who suffer to the most energetic struggles to improve their lot, and if these struggles only immediately result in sharper misery, the outcome is sheer desperation.”

IfsSufferingResultsVisionStruggleConditionsPossibilityMiseryMiserableOutcomesSheerDesperationEnergeticSpurs
Book:Anarchism: Top Crime Collections
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“The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and to be loved. Indeed, if partial emancipation is to become a complete and true emancipation of woman, it will have to do away with the ridiculous notion that to be loved, to be sweetheart and mother, is synonymous with being slave or subordinate. It will have to do away with the absurd notion of the dualism of the sexes, or that man and woman represent two antagonistic worlds.”

IfsMenWorldTwoLife IsMotherSexRightsDemandEqualMen And WomenFairsSlaveNotionRidiculousAbsurdVocationEqual RightsEmancipationSubordinatesSweetheartDualism
Book:Anarchism: Top Crime Collections
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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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“We say that if America has entered the war to make the world safe for democracy, she must first make democracy safe in America. How else is the world to take America seriously, when democracy at home is daily being outraged, free speech suppressed, peaceable assemblies broken up by overbearing and brutal gangsters in uniform; when free press is curtailed and every independent opinion gagged? Verily, poor as we are in democracy, how can we give of it to the world?”

IfsWorldGivingFirstsWarHomeAmericaPoorOpinionDemocracyBrokenSafeSpeechIndependentPressesFree SpeechBrutalUniformsAssemblyGangstersOutragedBroken UpFree PressOverbearing
Author:Emma Goldman
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“Sure, nothing succeeds like success. Fact is, dearest, we are fools. We cling to an ideal no one wants or cares about. I am the greater fool of the two of us. I go on eating out my heart and poisoning every moment of my life in the attempt to rouse people's sensibilities. At least if I could do it with closed eyes. The irony is I see the futility of my efforts and yet I can't let go.”

PeopleIfsWantHeartI CanTwoMomentsFactsEyeCareEffortGreaterFoolGoes OnMy HeartSucceedLetting GoEatingIdealsIronyIf I CouldSensibilityFutilityPoisoningTwo Of UsClosed EyesCan't Let GoEating Out
Author:Emma Goldman
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“I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from convention and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement would not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it.”

IfsWantShouldBelieveBeautifulJoyCausesMovementDemandIdealsPrejudiceReleaseDenialConventionsAnarchismNun
Author:Emma Goldman
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