Mikhail Bakunin Quotes

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• In every State, the government is nothing but a permanent conspiracy on the part of the minority against the majority, which it enslaves and fleeces.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Government, Liberty, Majority

  86 Copy quote

• In antiquity slaves were, in all honesty called slaves. In the middle ages, they took the name of serfs. Nowadays they are called wage earners.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Honesty, Names, Age

  Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin (1980). “Bakunin on anarchism”

  94 Copy quote

• If you took the most ardent revolutionary, vested him in absolute power, within a year he would be worse than the Tsar himself.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Years, Would Be, Revolutionary

  Mikhail Bakunin, Emma Goldman, Subcomandante Marcos “NASI-onalisme ?”, bukuLIAT

  31 Copy quote

• A Boss in Heaven is the best excuse for a boss on earth, therefore If God did exist, he would have to be abolished.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Boss, Heaven, Earth

  "God and the State". Book by Mikhail Bakunin, 1882.

  93 Copy quote

• Political Freedom without economic equality is a pretense, a fraud, a lie; and the workers want no lying.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Lying, Equality, Hype

  "The Red Association" by Mikhail Bakunin, www.marxists.org. 1870.

  102 Copy quote

• I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Men, Diversity, Culture

  "God and the State" (1871)

  98 Copy quote

• Our first work must be the annihilation of everything as it now exists.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Firsts, Annihilation

  5 Copy quote

• Freedom, morality, and the human dignity of the individual consists precisely in this; that he does good not because he is forced to do so, but because he freely conceives it, wants it, and loves it.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Liberty, And Love, Individual Morality

  101 Copy quote

• People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  People, Religion, Atheism

  95 Copy quote

• If there is a State, there must be domination of one class by another and, as a result, slavery; the State without slavery is unthinkable - and this is why we are the enemies of the State.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Class, Enemy, Slavery

  "Statism and Anarchy". Book by Mikhail Bakunin, 1873.

  39 Copy quote

• By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Men, Achieving The Impossible, Strive

  Attributed to Mikhail Bakunin in Paolo Novaresio "The Explorers: From the Ancient World to the Present", October 1, 1996.

  8 Copy quote

• To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Crush, Animal, Feet

  "On the International Workingmen's Association and Karl Marx" by Mikhail Bakunin (1872), as quoted in Mikhail Bakunin "Bakunin on Anarchism" edited and translated by Sam Dolgoff, www.marxists.org. 1971.

  79 Copy quote

• They maintain that only a dictatorship - their dictatorship, of course - can create the will of the people, while our answer to this is: No dictatorship can have any other aim but that of self-perpetuation, and it can beget only slavery in the people tolerating it; freedom can be created only by freedom, that is, by a universal rebellion on the part of the people and free organization of the toiling masses from the bottom up.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Self, Organization, People

  90 Copy quote

• As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  God, Long, Heaven

  Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin (1980). “Bakunin on anarchism”

  44 Copy quote

• When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called "the People's Stick."

  Mikhail Bakunin

  School, People, Sticks

  "Statism and Anarchy". Book by Mikhail Bakunin, 1873.

  57 Copy quote

• From the naturalistic point of view, all men are equal. There are only two exceptions to this rule of naturalistic equality: geniuses and idiots.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Equality, Men, Views

  85 Copy quote

• The freedom of all is essential to my freedom.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Essentials

  "Man, Society, and Freedom" by Mikhail Bakunin (1871), as quoted in Mikhail Bakunin "Bakunin on Anarchism" edited and translated by Sam Dolgoff, 1971.

  63 Copy quote

• Children do not constitute anyone's property:
  they are neither the property of their parents nor even of society.
  They belong only to their own future freedom.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Children, Parent, Society

  101 Copy quote

• Mr. Marx does not believe in God, but he believes deeply in himself. His heart is filled not with love but with rancor. He has very little benevolence toward men and becomes... furious and... spiteful... when anyone dares question the omniscience of the divinity whom he adores, that is to say, Mr. Marx himself.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Christian, Religious, Believe

  53 Copy quote

• Where the state begins, individual liberty ceases, and vice versa.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Individuality, Liberty, Vices

  Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin (1953). “The Political Philosophy of Bakunin: Scientific Anarchism”, Free Pr

  13 Copy quote

• The state is a force incarnate. Worse, it is the silly parading of force. It never seeks to prevail by persuasion. Whenever it thrusts its finger into anything it does so in the most unfriendly way. Its essence is command and compulsion.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Silly, Essence, Liberty

  12 Copy quote

• A person is strong only when he stands upon his own truth, when he speaks and acts from his deepest convictions.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Strength, Strong, Speak

  "God and the State". Book by Mikhail Bakunin, 1883.

  51 Copy quote

• All religions, with their gods, their demigods, and their prophets, their messiahs and their saints, were created by the credulous fancy of men who had not attained the full development and full possession of their faculties.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Men, Religion, Atheism

  "God and the State". Book by Mikhail Bakunin, 1883.

  71 Copy quote

• Powerful states can maintain themselves only by crime, little states are virtuous only by weakness.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Powerful, Weakness, Littles

  5 Copy quote

• Do you want to make it impossible for anyone to oppress his fellow-man? Then make sure that no one shall possess power.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Men, Fellow Man, Want

  Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin (1953). “The Political Philosophy of Bakunin: Scientific Anarchism”, Free Pr

  24 Copy quote

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