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Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman Quotes

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Famous Emma Goldman Quotes

“Christianity is most admirably adapted to the training of slaves, to the perpetuation of a slave society; in short, to the very conditions confronting us today. The rulers of the earth have realized long ago what potent poison inheres in the Christian religion. That is the reason they foster it; that is why they leave nothing undone to instill it into the blood of the people. They know only too well that the subtleness of the Christian teachings is a more powerful protection against rebellion and discontent than the club or the gun.”

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Author:Emma Goldman
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“Publishers, theatrical managers, and critics ask not for the quality inherent in creative art, but will it meet with a good sale, will it suit the palate of the people? Alas, this palate is like a dumping ground; it relishes anything that needs no mental mastication. As a result, the mediocre, the ordinary, the commonplace represents the chief literary output.”

PeopleNeedsArtAsksLiteratureResultsQualityCreativeOrdinaryCriticsSuitsChiefsManagersInherentMediocrePublishersAlasCommonplaceTheatricalRelishOutputCreative ArtPalate
Book:Anarchism: Top Crime Collections
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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.”

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Book:Living My Life (Two Volumes in One)
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“I regard it as a tragedy that people of a differing sexual orientation find themselves proscribed in a world that has so little understanding for homosexuals and that displays such gross indifference for sexual gradations and variations and the great significance they have for living. It is completely foreign to me to wish to regard such people as less valuable, less moral, incapable of noble sentiments and behavior.”

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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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“'Rugged individualism' has meant all the 'individualism' for the masters, while the people are regimented into a slave caste to serve a handful of self-seeking 'supermen.' America is perhaps the best representative of this kind of individualism, in whose name political tyranny and social oppression are defended and held up as virtues; while every aspiration and attempt of man to gain freedom and social opportunity to live is denounced as 'un-American' and evil in the name of that same individuality.”

PeopleMenKindSelfAmericaPoliticalEvilOpportunityNamesSocialVirtueMastersGainsSlaveIndividualitySeekingTyrannyOppressionAspirationIndividualismRepresentativesHandfulCastesRuggedRugged Individualism
Author:Emma Goldman
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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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“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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“We Americans claim to be a peace-loving people. We hate bloodshed; we are opposed to violence. Yet we go into spasms of joy over the possibility of projecting dynamite bombs from flying machines upon helpless citizens. We are ready to hang, electrocute, or lynch anyone, who, from economic necessity, will risk his own life in the attempt upon that of some industrial magnate. Yet our hearts swell with pride at the thought that America is becoming the most powerful nation on earth, and that she will eventually plant her iron foot on the necks of all other nations. Such is the logic of patriotism.”

PeopleHeartEarthAmericaJoyHateNationsPowerfulViolenceRiskFeetEconomicPossibilityReadyPrideBecomingCitizensLogicMachinesClaimsPlantFlyingBombsNecksPatriotismIronMost PowerfulHelplessBloodshedDynamiteFlying Machines
Book:Emma Goldman
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“Jealousy is indeed a poor medium to secure love, but it is a secure medium to destroy one's self-respect. For jealous people, like dope-fiends, stoop to the lowest level and in the end inspire only disgust and loathing.”

PeopleLoveEndsSelfPoorLevelsInspireMediumsSecureJealousySelf RespectJealousDisgustingLowestDopeLoathingStoopsLove JealousyLove And JealousyJealous People
Book:Red Emma Speaks: An Emma Goldman Reader
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“Direct action against the authority in the shop, direct action against the authority of the law, direct action against the invasive, meddlesome authority of our moral code, is the logical, consistent method of Anarchism. Will it not lead to a revolution? Indeed, it will. No real social change has ever come without a revolution. People are either not familiar with their history, or they have not yet learned that revolution is but thought carried into action.”

PeopleRealActionLawSocialMoralRevolutionAuthorityDirectMethodFamiliarCodeRevolutionaryShopsConsistentLogicalSocial ChangeAnarchismMoral CodeDirect ActionMeddlesome
Book:Anarchism and Other Essays
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