Anarchism Quotes

• Anarchism means voluntary co-operation instead of forced participation. It means harmony and order in place of interference and disorder.

  Alexander Berkman

  Mean, Order, Harmony

  Alexander Berkman (2003). “What is Anarchism?”, p.151, AK Press

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• I am an Anarchist not because I believe Anarchism is the final goal, but because there is no such thing as a final goal.

  Rudolf Rocker

  Believe, Goal, Finals

  Rudolf Rocker (1956). “The London years”

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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

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• An anarchist is someone who doesn't need a cop to make him behave.

  Ammon Hennacy

  Needs, Anarchist, Cop

  Ammon Hennacy (2010). “The Book of Ammon”, p.34, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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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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• Anarchism as a political philosophy seeks to dissolve all forms of authority and power, and if possible, wishes their complete abolition.

  Peter Marshall

  Philosophy, Authority And Power, Political

  "Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism". Book by Peter Marshall (p. 47), 1992.

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• 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.

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• Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others.

  Edward Abbey

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.18, RosettaBooks

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• Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners.

  Edward Abbey

  Kings, Years, Realization

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.18, RosettaBooks

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• Anarchism stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion and liberation of the human body from the coercion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. It stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals.

  Emma Goldman

  Government, Order, Mind

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• Anarchism, in my view, is an expression of the idea that the burden of proof is always on those who argue that authority and domination are necessary. They have to demonstrate, with powerful argument, that that conclusion is correct. If they cannot, then the institutions they defend should be considered illegitimate. How one should react to illegitimate authority depends on circumstances and conditions: there are no formulas.

  Noam Chomsky

  Powerful, Views, Expression

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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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• The best argument for anarchism is the twentieth century.

  Joseph Sobran

  Argument, Century, Twentieth Century

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• There are self-styled "anarcho-capitalists" (not to be confused with anarchists of any persuasion), who want the state abolished as a regulator of capitalism, and government handed over to capitalists.

  Donald Rooum

  Confused, Government, Self

  Donald Rooum (2016). “What is Anarchism?: An Introduction”, p.19, PM Press

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

  Emma Goldman

  Political, Voting, Nerd

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• Anarchism is really a synonym for socialism. The anarchist is primarily a socialist whose aim is to abolish the exploitation of man by man. Anarchism is only one of the streams of socialist thought, that stream whose main components are concern for liberty and haste to abolish the State.

  Daniel Guerin

  Men, Liberty, Haste

  Daniel Guérin (1970). “Anarchism; from theory to practice”, Monthly Review Pr

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• 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.

  Lucy Parsons

  Believe, Exercise, Men

  "The Principles of Anarchism". A Lecture by Lucy E. Parsons, lucyparsons.org.

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• Anarchism is in reality the ideal of political and social science, and also the ideal of religion. It is the ideal to which Jesus Christ looked forward. Christ founded no church, established no state, gave practically no laws, organized no government and set up no external authority, but he did seek to write on the hearts of men God's law and make them self-legislating.

  R. Heber Newton

  Jesus, Writing, Heart

  "Free Speech for Radicals". Book by Theodore Schroeder, p. 7, 1916.

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• The notion of anarchy ...means that once industrial functions have taken over from political functions, then business transactions and exchange alone produce the social order.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Taken, Mean, Order

  "The Principle of Federation". Book by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, 1863.

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• Anarchy is a word that comes from the Greek, and signifies, strictly speaking, "without government": the state of a people without any constituted authority. Before such an organization had begun to be considered possible and desirable by a whole class of thinkers, so as to be taken as the aim of a movement (which has now become one of the most important factors in modern social warfare), the word "anarchy" was used universally in the sense of disorder and confusion, and it is still adopted in that sense by the ignorant and by adversaries interested in distorting the truth.

  Errico Malatesta

  Taken, Class, Organization

  "Anarchy". Pamphlet by Errico Malatesta, www.marxists.org. 1891.

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• Anarchism is no patent solution for all human problems, no Utopia of a perfect social order, as it has 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 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.

  Rudolf Rocker

  Believe, Expression, Order

  Rudolf Rocker (2004). “Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice”, p.15, AK Press

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• I firmly believe people have the power to make decisions locally and cooperatively. Anarchism is how that is put into practice.

  Scott Crow

  Believe, Practice, People

  scott crow (2014). “Black Flags and Windmills: Hope, Anarchy, and the Common Ground Collective, Second Edition”, p.71, PM Press

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• 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.

  Errico Malatesta

  Lying, Taken, Blow

  Errico Malatesta (2014). “The Method of Freedom: An Errico Malatesta Reader”, p.272, AK Press

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• In the anarchist milieu, communism, individualism, collectivism, mutualism and all the intermediate and eclectic programmes are simply the ways considered best for achieving freedom and solidarity in economic life; the ways believed to correspond more closely with justice and freedom for the distribution of the means of production and the products of labour among men. Bakunin was an anarchist, and he was a collectivist, an outspoken enemy of communism because he saw in it the negation of freedom and, therefore, of human dignity.

  Errico Malatesta

  Mean, Men, Justice

  Errico Malatesta (2015). “Life and Ideas: The Anarchist Writings of Errico Malatesta”, p.22, PM Press

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• The education we all receive from the State, at school and after, has so warped our minds that the very notion of freedom ends up by being lost, and disguised in servitude. It is a sad sight to see those who believe themselves to be revolutionaries unleashing their hatred on the anarchist just because his views on freedom go beyond their petty and narrow concepts of freedom learned in the State school.

  Peter Kropotkin

  Believe, School, Sight

  "The State: Its Historic Role". Book by Peter Kropotkin, www.panarchy.org. 1897.

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