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Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman Quotes

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Famous Emma Goldman Quotes

“No revolution can ever succeed as a factor of liberation unless the MEANS used to further it be identical in spirit and tendency with the PURPOSES to be achieved. Revolution is the negation of the existing, a violent protest against man's inhumanity to man with all the thousand and one slaveries it involves. It is the destroyer of dominant values upon which a complex system of injustice, oppression, and wrong has been built up by ignorance and brutality. It is the herald of NEW VALUES, ushering in a transformation of the basic relations of man to man, and of man to society.”

MenMeanHas BeensUsedSpiritPurposeValuesIgnoranceRevolutionThousandSucceedBuiltRelationTransformationSlaveryComplexesInjusticeViolentTendenciesFactorsOppressionLiberationProtestDominantIdenticalBrutalityDestroyersInhumanityNegationComplex SystemsInhumanity To Man
Author:Emma Goldman
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“So-called Individualism is the social and economic laissez-faire: the exploitation of the masses by the classes by means of legal trickery, spiritual debasement and systematic indoctrination of the servile spirit, which process is known as 'education'.”

MeanSpiritualSpiritSocialProcessKnownClassEconomicMassIndividualismExploitationSystematicIndoctrinationLaissez FaireTrickery
Book:Red Emma Speaks: An Emma Goldman Reader
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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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“Today is the parent of tomorrow. The present casts its shadow far into the future. That is the law of life, individual and social. Revolution that divests itself of ethical values thereby lays the foundation of injustice, deceit, and oppression for the future society. The means used to prepare the future become its cornerstone.”

MeanTodayLawUsedValuesIndividualSocialParentRevolutionTomorrowShadowFoundationLaysInjusticeCastsOppressionDeceitEthicalCornerstonesLaws Of LifeSocial RevolutionEthical ValuesFuture Society
Author:Emma Goldman
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“With the conception that the Revolution was only a means of securing political power, it was inevitable that all revolutionary values should be subordinated to the needs of the Socialist State; indeed, exploited to further the security of the newly acquired governmental power.”

NeedsShouldMeanStatesPoliticalValuesSecurityRevolutionInevitableRevolutionaryConceptionSocialistPolitical PowerMental Power
Book:My Disillusionment in Russia
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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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“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
Book:Anarchism: Top Crime Collections
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“Anarchism asserts the possibility of an organization without discipline, fear, or punishment, and without the pressure of poverty: a new social organism which will make an end to the terrible struggle for the means of existence, --the savage struggle which undermines the finest qualities in man, and ever widens the social abyss. In short, Anarchism strives towards a social organization which will establish well-being for all.”

MenWellsMeanEndsSocialExistenceQualityPovertyStrugglePossibilityDisciplineTerribleOrganizationPressureStrivePunishmentWell BeingAnarchySavagesOrganismsFinestStrifeAbyssAnarchismSocial Organization
Book:Anarchism and Other Essays
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