Anarchist Quotes

• 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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• A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.

  Lysander Spooner

  Freedom, Men, Years

  Lysander Spooner (1973). “No Treason and a Letter to Thomas F. Bayard”

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• The State calls its own violence, law; but that of the individual, crime.

  Max Stirner

  Government, Law, Libertarian Party

  "The Great Quotations". Book by George Seldes, p. 664, 1960.

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• Anarchism, to me, means not only the denial of authority, not only a new economy, but a revision of the principles of morality. It means the development of the individual as well as the assertion of the individual. It means self-responsibility, and not leader worship.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Mean, Responsibility, Self

  Voltairine de Cleyre (2012). “Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre -- Anarchist, Feminist, Genius”, p.156, SUNY Press

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• What is an anarchist? One who, choosing, accepts the responsibility of choice.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Responsibility, Choices, Accepting

  URSULA K. LE GUIN (1975). “The Wind's Twelve Quarters”

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• 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

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• Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  Elbert Hubbard (1917). “In the Spotlight: Personal Experiences of Elbert Hubbard on the American Stage”

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

  Ammon Hennacy

  Needs, Cop, Anarchism

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

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• The law has no claim to human respect. It has no civilizing mission; its only purpose is to protect exploitation.

  Peter Kropotkin

  Respect, Government, Law

  "The Heretic's Handbook of Quotations: Cutting Comments on Burning Issues". Book by Chaz Bufe, p. 26, 1992.

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• The love of liberty and the sense of human dignity are the basic elements of the Anarchist creed.

  Federica Montseny

  Liberty, Elements, Dignity

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• Democracy has nothing to do with freedom. Democracy is a soft variant of communism, and rarely in the history of ideas has it been taken for anything else.

  Hans-Hermann Hoppe

  Freedom, Taken, Democracies Have

  "Reflections on State and War". Talk in Auburn, Alabama, on the occasion of receiving the Mises Institute’s 2006 Gary G. Schlarbaum Liberty Prize, www.lewrockwell.com. December 02, 2006.

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• Above all we should not forget, that government is an evil, an usurpation upon the private judgment and individual conscience of mankind.

  William Godwin

  Government, Evil, Judgement

  "An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice: And Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness".

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• America is just the country that shows how all the written guarantees in the world for freedom are no protection against tyranny and oppression of the worst kind. There the politician has come to be looked upon as the very scum of society.

  Peter Kropotkin

  Country, Freedom, America

  Speech on September 26, 1891. "Peter Kropotkin: From Prince to Rebel". Book by George Woodcock and Ivan Avakumović, p. 269, 1990.

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• An anarchist is someone who doesn't need a cop to make him behave. Anarchism is voluntary cooperation with the right of secession. The individual or the family or the small group as a unit instead of the State.

  Ammon Hennacy

  Groups, Needs, Cooperation

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

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• That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.

  Kim Stanley Robinson

  Police, Want, Libertarian

  Kim Stanley Robinson (2003). “Green Mars”, p.479, Spectra

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• Anarchists prepare for social revolution and use every means - speech, writing, or deed, whichever is more to the point; to accelerate revolutionary development.

  Johann Most

  Mean, Writing, Deeds

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• All good men are anarchists. All cultured, kindly men; all gentlemen; all just men are anarchists. Jesus was an anarchist.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Jesus, Men, Gentleman

  Elbert Hubbard (1922). “Selected Writings of Elbert Hubbard ...”

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• We anarchists do not want to emancipate the people; we want the people to emancipate themselves.

  Errico Malatesta

  Freedom, People, Want

  Errico Malatesta (2015). “Life and Ideas: The Anarchist Writings of Errico Malatesta”, p.83, PM Press

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• The dictionary definition of a Christian is one who follows Christ; kind, kindly, Christ-like. Anarchism is voluntary cooperation for good, with the right of secession. A Christian anarchist is therefore one who turns the other cheek, overturns the tables of the moneychangers, and does not need a cop to tell him how to behave. A Christian anarchist does not depend upon bullets or ballots to achieve his ideal; he achieves that ideal daily by the One-Man Revolution with which he faces a decadent, confused, and dying world.

  Ammon Hennacy

  Christian, Confused, Men

  Ammon Hennacy (2010). “The Book of Ammon”, p.19, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• The anarchist painter is not the one who will create anarchist pictures, but the one who will fight with all his individuality against official conventions.

  Paul Signac

  Fighting, Individuality, Individualism

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• If I had understood the situation a bit better I should probably have joined the Anarchists.

  George Orwell

  Revolutionary, Should, Situation

  George Orwell, Sonia Orwell, Ian Angus (1968). “The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell: An age like this, 1920-1940”, Harvill Secker

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• Anarchists are socialists because they want the improvement of society, and they are communists because they are convinced that such a transformation of society can only result from the establishment of a commonwealth of property.

  Johann Most

  Want, Transformation, Improvement

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• I define anarchist society as one where there is no legal possibility for coercive aggression against the person or property of any individual. Anarchists oppose the State because it has its very being in such aggression, namely, the expropriation of private property through taxation, the coercive exclusion of other providers of defense service from its territory, and all of the other depredations and coercions that are built upon these twin foci of invasions of individual rights.

  Murray Rothbard

  Rights, Focus, Defense

  "Society Without A State". The Libertarian Forum, 1975.

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• We are going to inherit the earth . There is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie may blast and burn its own world before it finally leaves the stage of history. We Are not afraid of ruins. We who ploughed the prairies and built the cities can build again, only better next time. We carry a new world, here in our hearts. That world is growing this minute.

  Buenaventura Durruti

  Heart, Cities, History

  Interview with Pierre van Paassen, The Toronto Daily Star, July 24, 1936.

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• As long as parents and teachers in general shall fall under the established rule, it is clear that politics and modes of government will educate and infect us all. They poison our minds, before we can resist, or so much as suspect their malignity. Like the barbarous directors of the Eastern seraglios, they deprive us of our vitality, and fit us for their despicable employment from the cradle.

  William Godwin

  Teacher, Fall, Government

  William Godwin (1798). “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice: And Its Influence on Morals and Happiness”, p.49

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