Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Quotes

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• To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-ridden, regulated, penned up, indoctrinated, preached at, checked, appraised, seized, censured, commanded, by beings who have neither title, nor knowledge, nor virtue. To be governed is to have every operation, every transaction, every movement noted, registered, counted, rated, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, refused, authorized, indorsed, admonished, prevented, reformed, redressed, corrected.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Law, Liberty, Titles

  88 Copy quote

• Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of government.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Courage, Government, Hands

  "The Authority Principle" in Daniel Guerin "No Gods, No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism" (p. 90), 1980.

  88 Copy quote

• Democracy is nothing but the Tyranny of Majorities, the most abominable tyranny of all, for it is not based on the authority of a religion, not upon the nobility of a race, not on the merits of talents and of riches. It merely rests upon numbers and hides behind the name of the people.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Numbers, Race, Names

  79 Copy quote

• 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.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Men, Hands, Order

  79 Copy quote

• The possessions of the rich are stolen property.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Rich, Stolen, Prized Possessions

  63 Copy quote

• To be governed ... is to be watched, inspected, directed, indoctrinated, numbered, estimated, regulated, commanded, controlled, law-driven, preached at, spied upon, censured, checked, valued, enrolled - by creatures who have neither the right, nor the wisdom, nor the virtue to do so.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Law, Liberty, Libertarian

  57 Copy quote

• When deeds speak, words are nothing.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Inspirational, Life, Deeds Done

  71 Copy quote

• Communism is exploitation of the strong by the weak.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Strong, Mediocrity, Communism

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (2011). “Property is Theft!: A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Anthology”, p.132, AK Press

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• The great are only great because we are on our knees. Let us rise!

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Courage, Knees

  41 Copy quote

• In any given society the authority of man over man runs in inverse proportion to the intellectual development of that society.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Running, Men, Intellectual

  48 Copy quote

• the government can do nothing for you. But you can do everything for yourselves

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Government, Can Do

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (2011). “Property is Theft!: A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Anthology”, p.24, AK Press

  48 Copy quote

• I stand ready to negotiate, but I want no part of laws: I acknowledge none; I protest against every order with which some authority may feel pleased on the basis of some alleged necessity to over-rule my free will. Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of government.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Government, Hands, Order

  "The Authority Principle" in Daniel Guerin "No Gods, No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism" (p. 90), 1980.

  52 Copy quote

• Whoever lays his hand on me to govern me is a usurper and tyrant, and I declare him my enemy.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Hands, Tyrants, Enemy

  31 Copy quote

• I do not wish to be either governor nor governed!

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Wish, Governors

  34 Copy quote

• I build no system. I ask an end to privilege, the abolition of slavery, equality of rights, and the reign of law. Justice, nothing else; that is the alpha and omega of my argument: to others I leave the business of governing the world.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Rights, Law, Abolition Of Slavery

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (2016). “What is Property?”, p.10, Cosimo Classics

  56 Copy quote

• The proprietor, producing neither by his own labor nor by his implement, and receiving products in exchange for nothing, is either a parasite or a thief.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Receiving, Thieves, Parasites

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (2016). “What is Property?”, p.98, Cosimo Classics

  36 Copy quote

• As man seeks justice in equality, so society seeks order in anarchy.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Men, Order, Justice

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (2011). “Property is Theft!: A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Anthology”, p.133, AK Press

  24 Copy quote

• The newspapers are the cemeteries of ideas.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Ideas, Newspapers, Cemetery

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (2011). “Property is Theft!: A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Anthology”, p.262, AK Press

  20 Copy quote

• The social revolution is seriously compromised if it comes through a political revolution.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Political Revolution, Social, Ifs

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (2011). “Property is Theft!: A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Anthology”, p.20, AK Press

  24 Copy quote

• it is the liberty that is the mother, not the daughter, of order.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Daughter, Mother, Order

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (2011). “Property is Theft!: A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Anthology”, p.280, AK Press

  14 Copy quote

• We want property, but property restored to its proper limits, that is to say, free distribution of the products of labour, property minus usury!

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Want, Usury, Limits

  34 Copy quote

• Anarchy is... a form of government or constitution in which public and private consciousness, formed through the development of science and law, is alone sufficient to maintain order and guarantee all liberties.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Government, Order, Law

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's letter of 1864, as quoted in "Selected writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon" edited by Stewart Edwards (p. 92), 1969.

  24 Copy quote

• To be governed is, under pretext of public utility and in the name of the general interest, to be laid under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, exhausted, hoaxed and robbed; then, upon the slightest resistance, at the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, annoyed, hunted down, pulled about, beaten, disarmed, bound, imprisoned, shot, judged, condemned, banished, sacrificed, sold, betrayed, and, to crown all, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Government, Names, Annoyed

  43 Copy quote

• It is a proof of philosophical mediocrity, today, to look for a philosophy.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Looks

  9 Copy quote

• The idea of God is the type and foundation of the principle of authority and absolutism, which it is our task to destroy or at least to subordinate wherever it manifests itself.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Ideas, Foundation, Principles

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (2007). “The Philosophy of Misery”, p.362, Cosimo, Inc.

  15 Copy quote

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