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Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Quotes

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Famous Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Quotes

“Does it seem to you impossible to imagine anything more inextricable than the social contract, when you think of the frightful number of relations that it must regulate -- something like squaring the circle, or finding perpetual motion? That is the reason why, wearied of the struggle, you fall back on absolutism and force.”

ThinkingDoeReasonSeemsFallForceSocialNumbersStruggleImagineImpossibleFindingsRelationCirclesReason WhyContractsPerpetualFall BackSocial ContractAbsolutismPerpetual Motion
Book:General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century
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“Communism--the first expression of the social nature--is the first term of social development--the thesis; property, the reverse of communism, is the second term--the antithesis. When we have discovered the third term, the synthesis, we shall have the required solution.”

FirstsSocialTermExpressionDevelopmentSolutionsThirdsPropertyCommunismReverseSocial DevelopmentThesisSynthesisAntithesis
Book:Property is Theft!: A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Anthology
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“Tormented by conflicting feelings, I appealed to reason ; and it is reason which, amid so many dogmatic contradictions, now forces the hypothesis upon me. A priori dogmatism, applying itself to God, has proved fruitless: who knows whither the hypothesis, in its turn, will lead us? I will explain therefore how, studying in the silence of my heart, and far from every human consideration, the mystery of social revolutions, God, the great unknown, has become for me an hypothesis, I mean a necessary dialectical tool.”

KnowsHumansHeartMeanReasonFeelingsTurnsForceSocialSilenceStudyMysteryRevolutionMy HeartToolsContradictionConsiderationHypothesisDogmaticDogmatismSocial RevolutionGreat Unknown
Book:System of Economical Contradictions: Or, The Philosophy of Misery
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“All men are equal and free: society by nature, and destination, is therefore autonomous and ungovernable. If the sphere of activity of each citizen is determined by the natural division of work and by the choice he makes of a profession, if the social functions are combined in such a way as to produce a harmonious effect, order results from the free activity of all men; there is no government. Whoever puts a hand on me to govern me is an usurper and a tyrant; I declare him my enemy.”

IfsMenWayHandsGovernmentOrderChoicesSocialNaturalResultsEnemyEffectsProduceCitizensActivityEqualFunctionDeterminedProfessionDestinationDivisionTyrantsSpheresHarmoniousFree SocietyAutonomousUsurpers
Author:Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
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