Emma Goldman Quotes

Quotes about:

• If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.

  Emma Goldman

  Political, Voting, Nerd

  67 Copy quote

• If I can not dance, I want no part in your revolution.

  Emma Goldman

  Want, Revolution, Can Not

  6 Copy quote

• Order derived through submission and maintained by terror is not much of a safe guaranty; yet that is the only "order" that governments have ever maintained. True social harmony grows naturally out of solidarity of interests. In a society where those who always work never have anything, while those who never work enjoy everything, solidarity of interests is non-existent; hence social harmony is but a myth.... Thus the entire arsenal of governments - laws, police, soldiers, the courts, legislatures, prisons - is strenuously engaged in "harmonizing" the most antagonistic elements in society.

  Emma Goldman

  Government, Order, Law

  10 Copy quote

• Peter Kropotkin...was recognized by friend and foe as one of the greatest minds...of the nineteenth century...The lucidity and brilliance of his mind combined with his warm-heartednes s into the harmonious whole of a fascinating and gracious personality.

  Emma Goldman

  Personality, Mind, Century

  4 Copy quote

• To-day is the parent of to-morrow. The present casts its shadow far into the future.

  Emma Goldman

  Parent, Shadow, Morrow

  Emma Goldman (2003). “My Disillusionment in Russia”, p.262, Courier Corporation

  8 Copy quote

• Men and women ... do you not realize that the State is the worst enemy you have? It is a machine that crushes you in order to sustain the ruling class, your masters. Like naïve children you put your trust in your political leaders. You make it possible for them to creep into your confidence, only to have them betray you to the first bidder. But even where there is no direct betrayal, the labour politicians make common cause with your enemies to keep you in leash, to prevent your direct action. The State is the pillar of capitalism, and it is ridiculous to expect any redress from it.

  Emma Goldman

  Crush, Children, Betrayal

  63 Copy quote
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  The most violent element in society is ignorance.

  Emma Goldman

  Peace, Educational, Book

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism and Other Essays”, p.33, Sheba Blake Publishing

  114 Copy quote
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  People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take.

  Emma Goldman

  Independent, People, Independence

  Emma Goldman (1914). “The Social Significance of the Modern Drama”

  104 Copy quote
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  I demand the independence of woman, her right to support herself; to live for herself; to love whomever she pleases, or as many as she pleases. I demand freedom for both sexes, freedom of action, freedom in love and freedom in motherhood.

  Emma Goldman

  Sex, Motherhood, Support

  Emma Goldman, Candace Falk, Barry Pateman, Jessica M. Moran (2003). “Emma Goldman: Made for America, 1890-1901”, p.43, Univ of California Press

  98 Copy quote

• 'What I believe' is a process rather than a finality. Finalities are for gods and governments, not for the human intellect.

  Emma Goldman

  Believe, Government, Anarchy

  Emma Goldman, Candace Falk (2008). “Emma Goldman”, p.340, University of Illinois Press

  24 Copy quote

• 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.

  Emma Goldman

  War, Apology, Law

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism: Top Crime Collections”, p.33, 谷月社

  71 Copy quote

• "All government in essence," says Emerson, "is tyranny." It matters not whether it is government by divine right or majority rule. In every instance its aim is the absolute subordination of the individual.

  Emma Goldman

  Government, Essence, Majority Rule

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism: Top Crime Collections”, p.31, 谷月社

  8 Copy quote

• How long would authority ... exist, if not for the willingness of the mass to become soldiers, policemen, jailers, and hangmen.

  Emma Goldman

  Long, Soldier, Authority

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism: Top Crime Collections”, p.42, 谷月社

  24 Copy quote

• Liberty will not descend to a people, a people must raise themselves to liberty...

  Emma Goldman

  People, Liberty, Raises

  "Lacon" by Emma Goldman, Vol. II; CLXXVIII, 1837.

  13 Copy quote

• 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.

  Emma Goldman

  Power, Reality, Thinking

  Emma Goldman (2011). “Living My Life (Two Volumes in One)”, p.487, Cosimo, Inc.

  15 Copy quote
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  A revolution without dancing is not a revolution worth having.

  Emma Goldman

  Dancing, Revolution

  "Living My Life". Book by Emma Goldman, 1931.

  60 Copy quote

• We say that if America has entered the war to make the world safe for democracy, she must first make democracy safe in America. How else is the world to take America seriously, when democracy at home is daily being outraged, free speech suppressed, peaceable assemblies broken up by overbearing and brutal gangsters in uniform; when free press is curtailed and every independent opinion gagged? Verily, poor as we are in democracy, how can we give of it to the world?

  Emma Goldman

  War, Home, Independent

  Address to the Jury, delivered 9 July 1917, New York

  4 Copy quote

• It is organized violence on top which creates individual violence at the bottom. It is the accumulated indignation against organized wrong, organized crime, organized injustice, which drives the political offender to act.

  Emma Goldman

  Political, Violence, Injustice

  Address to the Jury, delivered 9 July 1917, New York

  15 Copy quote

• Indeed, the keynote of government is injustice. With the arrogance and self-sufficiency of the King who could do no wrong, governments ordain, judge, condemn, and punish the most insignificant offenses, while maintaining themselves by the greatest of all offenses, the annihilation of individual liberty.

  Emma Goldman

  Kings, Government, Self

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism and Other Essays”, p.38, Sheba Blake Publishing

  9 Copy quote

• wealth means power: the power to subdue, to crush, to exploit, the power to enslave, to outrage, to degrade.

  Emma Goldman

  Crush, Mean, Wealth

  Emma Goldman (1969). “Anarchism: And Other Essays”, p.54, Courier Corporation

  32 Copy quote

• The State, every government whatever its form, character or color - be it absolute or constitutional, monarchy or republic, Fascist, Nazi or bolshevik - is by its very nature conservative, static, intolerant of change and opposed to it.

  Emma Goldman

  Character, Government, Color

  Emma Goldman (1998). “Red Emma Speaks: An Emma Goldman Reader”

  32 Copy quote

• I believe - indeed, I know - that whatever is fine and beautiful in the human expresses and asserts itself in spite of government, and not because of it.

  Emma Goldman

  Beautiful, Believe, Government

  Emma Goldman, Candace Falk (2008). “Emma Goldman”, p.341, University of Illinois Press

  5 Copy quote

• When in the course of human development, existing institutions prove inadequate to the needs of man, when they serve merely to enslave, rob and oppress mankind, the people have the eternal right to rebel against, and overthrow, these institutions.

  Emma Goldman

  Men, People, Rebel

  Emma Goldman, Candace Falk (2008). “Emma Goldman”, p.450, University of Illinois Press

  6 Copy quote

• No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution... revolution is but thought carried into action.

  Emma Goldman

  Real, Politics, Revolution

  18 Copy quote

• Revolution is indeed a violent process. But if it is to result only in a change of dictatorship, in a shifting of names and political personalities, then it is hardly worth while.

  Emma Goldman

  Names, Personality, Political

  Emma Goldman (1998). “Red Emma Speaks: An Emma Goldman Reader”

  21 Copy quote

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