Usage
Anarchism-related quotes from Wikiquote or Wikisource can be added directly to this list without nomination, provided they are properly cited. If you have difficulty securing citation for a quote, you can also ask for help at Portal talk:Anarchism. To nominate a quote for selection, see the centralized portal maintenance page for a list of current nominations and discussions.
Template
{{Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/Layout
|image=
|size=
|caption=
|quote=
|link=
|detail=
}}
Note that the prefix Image: is not required when using this template. The template will also auto-wikilink the article entered in the link= field. Further information on this template can be found at Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/Layout.
Instructions
- These Quotes subpages are randomly displayed using {{Random subpage}}.
- Add a new Quote to the next available subpage, using the layout format from the link above.
- Add a citation of where the quote was stated on that subpage below the quote.
- Update the "Random subpage" start and end values above to include the new Quote.
Quote list
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/1
“
|
county commissioners .
|
”
|
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/2
“
|
So political theory .
This is what is not normally said to you, this is what you never read in the newspapers, this is what is not written in books, this is what school jealously keeps quiet about, because this is the secret of life: never ever separate thought from action, the things we know, the things we understand, from the things we do, the things with which we carry out our actions.
|
”
|
— Alfredo M. Bonanno , The Anarchist Tension, 1998.
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/3
“
|
My second reason for not repeating suffer .
|
”
|
— Voltairine de Cleyre, In Defense of Emma Goldmann and the Right of Expropriation, December 16, 1893.
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/4
“
|
Its external forms have altered in the course of its historical development, but its functions have always remained the same. They have even been constantly broadened in just the measure in which its supporters have succeeded in making further fields of social activity subservient to their needs. Whether the monopolies. Who fails to recognise this function of the state does not understand the real nature of the present social order at all, and is incapable of pointing out to humanity new outlooks for its social evolution.
Anarchism is no patent solution for all human problems, no Utopia of a perfect social order, as it has so often been called, since on principle it rejects all absolute schemes and concepts. It does not believe in any absolute truth, or in definite final goals for human development, but in an unlimited perfectibility of social arrangements and human living conditions, which are always straining after higher forms of expression, and to which for this reason one can assign no definite terminus nor set any fixed goal. The worst crime of any type of state is just that it always tries to force the rich diversity of social life into definite forms and adjust it to one particular form, which allows for no wider outlook and regards the previously exciting status as finished. The stronger its supporters feel themselves, the more completely they succeed in bringing every field of social life into their service, the more crippling is their influence on the operation of all creative cultural forces, the more unwholesomely does it affect the intellectual and social development of any particular epoch.
|
”
|
— Anarcho-Syndicalism , 1938.
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/5
“
|
The different topics of political institution cannot perhaps be more perspicuously distributed than under the four following heads: provisions for general administration; provisions for the intellectual and moral improvement of individuals; provisions for the administration of criminal justice; and provisions for the regulation of property. Under each of these heads it will be our business, in proportion as we adhere to the great and comprehensive principles already established, rather to clear away abuses than to recommend further and more precise regulations, rather to simplify than to complicate. Above all we should not forget, that government is an evil, an usurpation upon the private judgment and individual conscience of mankind; and that, however we may be obliged to admit it as a necessary evil for the present, it behoves us, as the friends of reason and the human species, to admit as little of it as possible, and carefully to observe whether, in consequence of the gradual illumination of the human mind, that little may not hereafter be diminished.
|
”
|
— Enquiry Concerning Political Justice , 1793
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/6
“
|
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 about 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.
Anarchism, the great leaven of thought, is today permeating every phase of human endeavor. Science, art, literature, the drama, the effort for economic betterment, in fact every individual and social opposition to the existing disorder of things, is illumined by the spiritual light of Anarchism. It is the philosophy of the sovereignty of the individual. It is the theory of social harmony. It is the great, surging, living truth that is reconstructing the world, and that will usher in the Dawn.
|
”
|
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/7
“
|
violent men, Anarchism is the one non-violent social philosophy. It is the very antithesis of Communism and Fascism, which place the State as supreme. Anarchists will do away with the State entirely. The function of the Anarchist is two-fold. By daily courage in non-cooperation with the tyrannical forces of the State and the Church, he helps to tear down present society; the Anarchist by daily cooperation with his fellows in overcoming evil with good-will and solidarity builds toward the anarchistic commonwealth which is formed by voluntary action with the right of secession .
The basis of Anarchism is liberty with individual responsibility; its methods are decentralization of activity and federation of local communes for national and international functions.
|
”
|
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/8
“
|
.
Also it is the attempt to expose the ways our Darwinian selection, or God 's will, or economic exigency.
Beyond that, Anarchism is the attempt to look even into those parts of our everyday lives we accept as givens, as part of the universe, to see how they, too, dominate us or facilitate our domination over others... Most fundamentally, I would see Anarchism as a synonym for anti-authoritarianism.
|
”
|
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/9
“
|
As for violence, which people take as the characteristic mark of the anarchist, it cannot and it shall not be denied, that most anarchists feel convinced that the development of the present social order cannot be brought upon its right track by peacable proceedings only. But that is a question of tactics which has nothing to do with principles.
Anarchism means itself a new social order, and anyone who knows human life from its depths to its heights, and has the courage to fling aside all patching up and smoothing down, all bargaining and compromising, and draw the necessary conclusions from past evolution, must arrive at the very principle on which this new order shall be built up. Our principle is: to prevent all command over man by his fellowmen, to, make state, government, laws, or whatsoever form of compulsion existing, a thing of the past, to establish full freedom for all. Anarchism means first and foremost freedom from all government.
|
”
|
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/10
“
|
Therefore, the subject is not whether we accomplish Anarchism today, tomorrow, or within ten centuries, but that we walk towards Anarchism today, tomorrow, and always.
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.
The problem lies in knowing how to choose the road that really approaches the realisation of the ideal and in not confusing the real progress with hypocritical reforms. For with the pretext of obtaining immediate ameliorations these false reforms tend to distract the masses from the struggle against authority and capitalism; they serve to paralyse their actions and make them hope that something can be attained through the kindness of the exploiters and governments. The problem lies in knowing how to use the little power we have – that we go on achieving, in the most economical way, more prestige for our goal.
There is in every country a government which, with brutal force, imposes its laws on all; it compels all to be subjected to exploitation and to maintain, whether they like it or not, the existing institutions. It forbids the minority groups to actuate their ideas, and prevents the social organisations in general from modifying themselves according to, and with, the modifications of public opinion. The normal peaceful course of evolution is arrested by violence, and thus with violence it is necessary to reopen that course. It is for this reason that we want a violent revolution today; and we shall want it always – so long as man is subject to the imposition of things contrary to his natural desires. Take away the governmental violence and ours would have no reason to exist.
|
”
|
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/11
“
|
The philosophy of natural resources of the earth , all artificial restrictions, that the body might be nurtures, and from universal truth, all bars of prejudice and superstition, that the mind may develop symmetrically.
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.
We look away from government for relief, because we know that force (legalized) invades the personal liberty of man, seizes upon the natural elements and intervenes between man and natural laws; from this exercise of force through governments flows nearly all the misery, poverty, crime and confusion existing in society.
|
”
|
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/12
“
|
“Well! you are a democrat?”
“No.”
“What! you would have a monarchy.”
“No.”
“A constitutionalist ?”
“God forbid!”
“You are then an aristocrat ?”
“Not at all.”
“You want a mixed government?”
“Still less.”
“What are you, then?”
“I am an anarchist .”
“Oh! I understand you; you speak satirically. This is a hit at the government.”
“By no means. I have just given you my serious and well-considered profession of faith. Although a firm friend of order, I am (in the full force of the term) an anarchist. Listen to me.”
|
”
|
— What Is Property? , 1840.
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/13
“
|
Indeed: Who says anarchy, says negation of government; who says negation of government says affirmation of the people; who says affirmation of the people, says individual liberty; who says individual liberty, says sovereignty of each; who says sovereignty of each, says equality; who says equality, says solidarity or fraternity; who says fraternity, says social order.
By contrast: who says government, says negation of the people; who says negation of the people, says affirmation of political authority; who says affirmation of political authority, says individual dependency; who says individual dependency, says class supremacy; who says class supremacy, says inequality; who says inequality, says antagonism; who says antagonism, says civil war; from which it follows that who says government, says civil war.
Yes, anarchy is order, whereas government is civil war.
|
”
|
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/14
“
|
The first man who, having enclosed a piece of impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody." But there is great probability that things had then already come to such a pitch, that they could no longer continue as they were; for the idea of property depends on many prior ideas, which could only be acquired successively, and cannot have been formed all at once in the human mind. Mankind must have made very considerable progress, and acquired considerable knowledge and industry which they must also have transmitted and increased from age to age, before they arrived at this last point of the state of nature. Let us then go farther back, and endeavour to unify under a single point of view that slow succession of events and discoveries in the most natural order.
|
”
|
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/15
“
|
The more a , determination and action waxes inside him. That is true of every individual, man or woman, even though they may never have heard of the word "anarchism" before.
The nature of man is anarchist: it kicks against anything tending to make it a oppressed , begin, little by little, to come alive to that role: so the former aspire by hook or by crook to misrepresent that ideal, whilst the latter aspire to make it the easier to attain.
Comprehension of the anarchist ideal grows in slave and master alike as modern civilization grows.
Despite the ends to which the latter has thus far been turned - lulling and thwarting every natural tendency in man to protest every trespass against his dignity - it has not been able to silence independent scientific minds which have exposed the true provenance of man and demonstrated the nonexistence of God, hitherto considered the Creator of Mankind. Thereafter, it has naturally become easier to offer irrefutable proof of the artificial nature of "divine ordinances" on earth and of the ignominious relations that they establish between men.
All of these happenings have been of considerable assistance to the conscious development of anarchist ideas. Equally it is true that artificial notions have come to light at the same time: modern society , or at any rate upon a large part thereof, and despite their victory over the classical reaction on the one hand, and over the individual personality on the other, these artificial notions tend to slip down the slope leading to the familiar forms of the old world.
|
”
|
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/16
“
|
Our tactics derive from what has been said. We are economic question something secondary. Some will say to us that it is because of the economic question that Anarchy is a true idea; but we believe that to be anarchist means being the enemy of all authority and imposition and, by consequence, whatever system is proposed must be considered the best defence of Anarchy, not wishing to impose it on those who do not accept it.
This does not mean that we ignore the economic question. On the contrary, we are pleased to discuss it, but only as a contribution to the definitive solution or solutions. Many excellent things have been said by ; however, they have offered important contributions to the great question.
Remember that from the moment you set about drawing up the general lines of the Future Society, on the one hand there arise objections and questions from opponents; and on the other hand, the natural desire to produce a complete and perfect work will lead one to invent and draw up a system that, we are sure, will disappear like the others.
|
”
|
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/17
“
|
The anarchists are not promising anything to anyone. The anarchists only want people to be conscious of their own situation and seize freedom for themselves.
|
”
|
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/18
“
|
I am convinced that prehistoric. I see with the eyes of my soul how the sky is suffused with the rays of the new millennium.
I maintain that human spirit to the good of all. I know from experience that rights and privileges are still won and maintained by force, until humanity shall have perfected itself.
In the real history of future humanity — classes and privileges, the antagonisms of interest between man and man abolished — progress and change will be determined by intelligence and the common convenience.
If we and the generation which our bosoms do not arrive nearer to that goal, we shall not have obtained anything real, and humanity will continue to be more miserable and unhappy.
I am and shall be until the last instant (unless I should discover that I am in error) an anarchist-communist , because I believe that communism is the most humane form of social contract, because I know that only with liberty can man rise, become noble, and complete.
|
”
|
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/19
“
|
I heartily accept the expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war , the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure.
|
”
|
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/20
“
|
The economic war debts is proof of the untenability of the present status, and should make clear to everybody that the alleged protection which the state affords the individual is certainly purchased too dearly.
The ever growing power of a soulless political bureaucracy which supervises and safeguards the life of man from the cradle to the grave is putting ever greater obstacles in the way of the solidaric co-operation of human beings and crushing out every possibility of new development. A system which in every act of its life sacrifices the welfare of large sections of the people, yes, of whole nations, to the selfish lust for power and the economic interests of small minorities must of necessity dissolve all social ties and lead to a constant war of all against all. This system has been merely the pacemaker for the great intellectual and social reaction which finds its expression today in modern Fascism, far surpassing the obsession for power of the absolute monarchy of past centuries and seeking to bring every sphere of human activity under the control of the state. Just as for the various systems of religious theology, God is everything and man nothing, so for this modern political theology, the state is everything and the man nothing. And just as behind the "will of God" there always lay hidden the will of privileged minorities, so today there hides behind the "will of the state" only the selfish interest of those who feel called to interpret this will in their own sense and to force it upon the people.
|
”
|
— Anarcho-Syndicalism , 1938.
|
Portal:Anarchism/Selected quote/21
“
|
Yes, our first ancestors, our think and the desire to rebel .
These faculties, combining their progressive action in history, represent the essential factor, the negative power in the positive development of human animality, and create consequently all that constitutes humanity in man.
The slaves. He generously placed at their disposal the whole earth, with all its fruits and animals, and set but a single limit to this complete enjoyment. He expressly forbade them from touching the fruit of the tree of knowledge. He wished, therefore, that man, destitute of all understanding of himself, should remain an eternal beast, ever on all-fours before the eternal God, his creator and his master. But here steps in Satan, the eternal rebel, the first freethinker and the emancipator of worlds. He makes man ashamed of his bestial ignorance and obedience; he emancipates him, stamps upon his brow the seal of liberty and humanity, in urging him to disobey and eat of the fruit of knowledge.
|
”
|
|