Mikhail Bakunin Quotes

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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

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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”

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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

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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.

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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.

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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)

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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

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

Mikhail Bakunin

Firsts, Annihilation

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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”

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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Destroy or be destroyed-there is no middle way! Let us then be the destroyers!

Mikhail Bakunin

Nihilism, Way, Middle

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Religion is a collective insanity.

Mikhail Bakunin

Insanity, Atheism, Positive Atheism

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin “The Selected Works of Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin”, Library of Alexandria

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Born: May 30, 1814
Died: July 1, 1876
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