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Anarchism Quotes

Browse 383 quotes about Anarchism.

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Anarchism Quotes

“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.”

WarStatesGovernmentPoliticalMotivationEvilLibertyWorstConservativeLibertarianCommon SenseIntoleranceFederal GovernmentFoundingConservatism4th Of JulyAnarchismGoverningAnarchistOur Founding FathersProperty RightsLimited GovernmentTotal WarState GovernmentUs Founding FathersLimiting GovernmentLibertarian PartyLimited FreedomLocal GovernmentNecessary EvilLimiting FreedomGovernment And SocietyGovernment And PoliticsGovernment PoliticsEvil Government
Author:Thomas Paine
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“Anarchism, to me, means not only the denial of authority, not only a new economy, but a revision of the principles of morality. It means the development of the individual as well as the assertion of the individual. It means self-responsibility, and not leader worship.”

WellsMeanSelfIndividualResponsibilityLeaderPrinciplesEconomyDevelopmentMoralityAuthorityWorshipDenialAnarchyAnarchismAnarchistPersonal ResponsibilityAssertionRevisionSelf Responsibility
Book:Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre -- Anarchist, Feminist, Genius
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“I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things.' Anarchism meant that to me, and I would live it in spite of the whole world — prisons, persecution, everything. Yes, even in spite of the condemnation of my own closest comrades I would live my beautiful ideal.”

WorldWantSelfWholeBeautifulMy OwnExpressionIdealsPrisonWhole WorldSpiteClosestPersecutionAnarchismSelf ExpressionRadiantComradeCondemnation
Book:Living My Life (Two Volumes in One)
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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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“The most absurd apology for authority and law is that they serve to diminish crime. Aside from the fact that the State is itself the greatest criminal, breaking every written and natural law, stealing in the form of taxes, killing in the form of war and capital punishment, it has come to an absolute standstill in coping with crime. It has failed utterly to destroy or even minimize the horrible scourge of its own creation.”

WarStatesFactsFormLawNaturalWrittenCrimeCreationTaxesAuthorityAbsolutesKillingCriminalsPunishmentStealingHorribleAbsurdAnarchyApologyDiminishAnarchismAnarchistCopingNatural LawCapital PunishmentScourgeStandstillCrime And Criminals
Book:Anarchism: Top Crime Collections
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“Odonianism is anarchism. Not the bomb-in-the-pocket stuff, which is terrorism, whatever name it tries to dignify itself with, not the social-Darwinist economic 'libertarianism' of the far right; but anarchism, as prefigured in early Taoist thought, and expounded by Shelley and Kropotkin, Goldman and Goodman. Anarchism's principal target is the authoritarian State (capitalist or socialist); its principle moral-practical theme is cooperation (solidarity, mutual aid). It is the most idealistic, and to me the most interesting, of all political theories.”

TryingStatesPoliticalNamesSocialStuffInterestingMoralPrinciplesEconomicTheoryTerrorismAidsPracticalsThemeBombsPocketsMutualTargetCooperationCapitalistLibertarianismPrincipalSocialistSolidarityAnarchismMost InterestingIdealisticGoodmanPolitical TheoryShelleyMutual Aid
Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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“If you say that you reject violence when it exceeds the limits imposed by the needs of defense, they accuse you of pacifism, without understanding that violence is the whole essence of authoritarianism, just as the repudiation of violence is the whole essence of anarchism.”

IfsNeedsWholeUnderstandingViolenceLimitsEssenceDefenseRejectsExceedAnarchismAuthoritarianismPacifism
Book:Life and Ideas: The Anarchist Writings of Errico Malatesta
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“Anarchists are opposed to violence; everyone knows that. The main plank of anarchism is the removal of violence from human relations. It is life based on freedom of the individual, without the intervention of the gendarme. For this reason we are the enemies of capitalism which depends on the protection of the gendarme to oblige workers to allow themselves to be exploited--or even to remain idle and go hungry when it is not in the interest of the bosses to exploit them. We are therefore enemies of the State which is the coercive violent organization of society.”

KnowsHumansStatesReasonIndividualInterestEnemyViolenceDependsCapitalismOrganizationRelationWorkersProtectionViolentHungryBossAnarchyIdleInterventionExploitsAnarchismAnarchistHuman RelationsRemoval
Book:Life and Ideas: The Anarchist Writings of Errico Malatesta
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“Anarchism is the abolition of exploitation and oppression of man by man, that is, the abolition of private property and government; Anarchism is the destruction of misery, of superstitions, of hatred. Therefore, every blow given to the institutions of private property and to the government, every exaltation of the conscience of man, every disruption of the present conditions, every lie unmasked, every part of human activity taken away from the control of the authorities, every augmentation of the spirit of solidarity and initiative, is a step towards Anarchism.”

MenHumansGovernmentSpiritLyingGivenStepsTakenConditionsActivityAuthorityConscienceDestructionHatredInstitutionsPropertyMiseryBlowOppressionSuperstitionsInitiativeExploitationSolidarityAnarchismPrivate PropertyDisruptionAbolitionHuman ActivityExaltation
Book:The Method of Freedom: An Errico Malatesta Reader
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“My thinking tends to be libertarian. That is, I oppose intrusions of the state into the private realm-as in abortion, sodomy, prostitution, pornography, drug use, or suicide, all of which I would strongly defend as matters of free choice in a representative democracy.”

ThinkingMatterStatesUseChoicesDemocracyDrugSuicideLibertarianRealmsAbortionRepresentativesPornographyAnarchismProstitutionIntrusionFree ChoiceDrug Use
Book:Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays
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“The emotions of the ignorant man are continuously kept at a pitch by the most blood-curdling stories about Anarchism. Not a thing too outrageous to be employed against this philosophy and its exponents. Therefore Anarchism represents to the unthinking what the proverbial bad man does to the child,-a black monster bent on swallowing everything; in short, destruction and violence.”

MenChildrenDoePhilosophyStoriesBlackEmotionViolenceBloodDestructionMonstersIgnorantAnarchyBentEmployedAnarchismOutrageousBad ManSwallowingProverbialExponents
Book:Anarchism: Top Crime Collections
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“Anarchism does not repudiate the right of ownership, but it has a conception thereof sufficiently different from [others'] to include the possibility of an end of that social organization which will arise, not out of the ruins of government, but out of the transformation of government into voluntary association for defence.”

DoeDifferentEndsGovernmentSocialPossibilityOrganizationTransformationAriseRuinsConceptionAnarchyAssociationOwnershipDefenceAnarchismSocial Organization
Author:Benjamin Tucker
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“Anarchists know that a long period of education must precede any great fundamental change in society, hence they do not believe in vote begging, nor political campaigns, but rather in the development of self-thinking individuals.”

ThinkingKnowsBelieveLongSelfPoliticalIndividualDevelopmentPeriodsVoteFundamentalsCampaignsAnarchyAnarchismAnarchistBeggingPolitical CampaignChanges In Society
Book:Freedom, Equality and Solidarity
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