19th Century – Page 2 – Anarchist Quotes

"Thus, on the one hand, the "unionised" are today in a position to understand, study and receive libertarian teachings: on the other, anarchists need not fear that, in taking part in the corporative movement, they will be required to forswear their independence."

— Fernand Pelloutier,
anarcho-syndicalist (1867 ‐ 1901)
French syndicalist and anarchist theorist.

""Soviet" power is a power no better and no worse than any other."

— Nestor Makhno,
Anarcho-communist (1888 ‐ 1934)
Anarchist Revolutionary and commander of an independent army in Ukraine

"Political rights do not exist because they have been legally set down on a piece of paper, but only when they have become the ingrown habit of a people, and when any attempt to impair them will meet with the violent resistance of the populace."

— Rudolf Rocker,
anarcho-syndicalist (1873 ‐ 1958)
Influential anarchist writer and speaker

"I would rather, much rather, be illegitimate according to the statutes of men, than illegitimate according to the unchanging law of nature."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Direct action is the logical, consistent method of anarchism."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"When we have but the will to do it, that very moment will Justice be done: that very instant the tyrants of the Earth shall bite the dust."

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"If this is the price to be paid for an idea, then let us pay. There is no need of being troubled about it, afraid, or ashamed. This is the time to boldly say, "Yes, I believe in the displacement of this system of injustice by a just one; I believe in the end of starvation, exposure, and the crimes caused by them.""

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"The State is said by some to be a "necessary evil"; it must be made unnecessary."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"When we have but the will to do it, that very moment will Justice be done: that very instant the tyrants of the Earth shall bite the dust."

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"Liberalism, socialism and state communism are three branches of the same family, resorting to different approaches in order to exercise their power over man."

— Nestor Makhno,
Anarcho-communist (1888 ‐ 1934)
Anarchist Revolutionary and commander of an independent army in Ukraine

"If you wish to remain men, do not be soldiers; if you cannot stand humiliations do not don the uniform. If, however, you have already committed the imprudence of clothing yourselves therewith, and some day you find yourselves in the situation of being unable to control your indignation, then neither insult nor strike your superiors; LET DAYLIGHT THROUGH THEM! You will pay no more for it."

— Jean Grave,
Anarcho-communist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Influential French anarcho-communist writer

"We must fight authority and privilege, while taking advantage from the benefits that civilization has conferred. We must not destroy anything that satisfies human need however badly - until we have something better to put in its place."

— Errico Malatesta,
anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1932)
Influential Italian anarchist theorist

"In order to destroy an effect you must first destroy the cause. If there is theft it is only because there is abundance on one hand and famine on the other; because everything only belongs to some. The struggle will only disappear when men will put their joys and suffering in common, their labors and their riches, when all will belong to everyone."

— Marius Jacob,
Anarcho-Individualist (1879 ‐ 1954)
French anarchist and prolific burglar

"Man, your head is haunted; you have wheels in your head! You imagine great things, and depict to yourself a whole world of gods that has an existence for you, a spirit-realm to which you suppose yourself to be called, an ideal that beckons to you. You have a fixed idea!"

— Max Stirner,
egoist anarchist (1806 ‐ 1856)
Influential philosopher and anarchist

"I dislike communism because it is undemocratic, and capitalism because it favors exploitation."

— Bertrand Russell,
Philosophical anarchist, Libertarian socialist (1872 ‐ 1970)
Renowned philosopher, mathematician, and anarchist

"There is a conflict between the static and dynamic conceptions of anarchism, between those who want to gregarize and stabilize anarchism and those who want the revolutionary, individualist spirit to remain and simmer permanently within anarchism."

— Emile Armand,
Anarcho-Individualist (1872 ‐ 1962)
French individualist anarchist and prolific writer

"High hopes were once formed of democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people."

— Oscar Wilde,
anarcho-individualist (1854 ‐ 1900)
Irish author and poet known for his wit.

"If there be in nature such a principle as justice, it is necessarily the only political principle there ever was, or ever will be."

— Lysander Spooner,
Anarcho-Individualist (1808 ‐ 1887)
American political philosopher and abolitionist

"When private property is abolished there will be no necessity for crime, no demand for it; it will cease to exist."

— Oscar Wilde,
anarcho-individualist (1854 ‐ 1900)
Irish author and poet known for his wit.

"Have not prisons - which kill all will and force of character in man, which enclose within their walls more vices than are met with on any other spot of the globe - always been universities of crime? Is not the court of a tribunal a school of ferocity?"

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"Have not prisons - which kill all will and force of character in man, which enclose within their walls more vices than are met with on any other spot of the globe - always been universities of crime? Is not the court of a tribunal a school of ferocity?"

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"Whosoever looks back on the history of socialism after the exclusion of the anarchists can see for themselves the gradual degeneration of Marxism as a political philosophy through the interpretations and practices of the social democrats."

— Camillo Berneri,
Anarcho-Communist (1897 ‐ 1937)
Italian anarchist, philosopher and educator

"The things people say of a man do not alter a man. He is what he is. Public opinion is of no value whatsoever."

— Oscar Wilde,
anarcho-individualist (1854 ‐ 1900)
Irish author and poet known for his wit.

"According to their absurd programs, the statist socialists and communists have decided to "allow" man to emancipate himself socially, without its thereby being feasible for him to manifest that freedom in his social life."

— Nestor Makhno,
Anarcho-communist (1888 ‐ 1934)
Anarchist Revolutionary and commander of an independent army in Ukraine

"We have come more and more under the dominance of mechanics and sacrificed living humanity to the dead rhythm of the machine without most of us even being conscious of the monstrosity of the procedure."

— Rudolf Rocker,
anarcho-syndicalist (1873 ‐ 1958)
Influential anarchist writer and speaker

"As man seeks justice in equality, so society seeks order in anarchy."

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,
Mutualist (1809 ‐ 1865)
French anarchist and political philosopher

"A structure based on centuries of history cannot be destroyed with a few kilos of explosives."

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"A structure based on centuries of history cannot be destroyed with a few kilos of explosives."

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"The right of revolution, which tyrants, in mockery, accord to mankind, is no legal right under a government; it is only a natural right to overturn a governmentent. The government itself never acknowledges this right."

— Lysander Spooner,
Anarcho-Individualist (1808 ‐ 1887)
American political philosopher and abolitionist

"Intellectuals: put yourself at the service of the weak. Meditate upon this; this is the really urgent work."

— Fernand Pelloutier,
anarcho-syndicalist (1867 ‐ 1901)
French syndicalist and anarchist theorist.

"Perhaps even more than constituted authority, it is social uniformity and sameness that harass the individual most."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"Anarchy, today, is attack; it is war against every authority, every power, every state. In the future society, anarchy will be defence, the prevention of the re-establishment of any authority, any power, any state."

— Carlo Cafiero,
Anarcho-communist (1846 ‐ 1892)
Italian anarchist, champion of international socialism

"To us it means nothing that there is a Soviet Union somewhere in the world, for the sake of whose peace and tranquility the workers of Germany and China were sacrificed to Fascist barbarians by Stalin."

— Buenaventura Durruti,
anarcho-syndicalist (1896 ‐ 1936)
Influential Spanish anarchist and militant

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

— Errico Malatesta,
anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1932)
Influential Italian anarchist theorist

"It is not the product of their labors to which the workers have a right. It is the satisfaction of their needs, whatever the nature of those needs."

— Joseph Dejacque,
Anarcho-Communist (1821 ‐ 1864)
French early anarchocommunist, poet and essayist

"The peoples owe all the political rights and privileges which we enjoy today in greater or lesser measure, not to the good will of their governments, but to their own strength."

— Rudolf Rocker,
anarcho-syndicalist (1873 ‐ 1958)
Influential anarchist writer and speaker

"A man who does not think for himself does not think at all."

— Oscar Wilde,
anarcho-individualist (1854 ‐ 1900)
Irish author and poet known for his wit.

"True intellectual culture and the demand for higher interests in life does not become possible until man has achieved a certain material standard of living, which makes him capable of these."

— Rudolf Rocker,
anarcho-syndicalist (1873 ‐ 1958)
Influential anarchist writer and speaker

"No feats of heroism are needed to achieve the greatest and most important changes in the existence of humanity."

— Leo Tolstoy,
anarcho-pacifist (1828 ‐ 1910)
Russian author, pacifist and social anarchist

"It is through the inspiration of collective responsibility that the revolutionaries of all epochs and all schools have united their forces; it is upon this that they based their hope that their partial revolts - revolts which opened the path for the oppressed - were not in vain, that the exploited would understand their aspirations, would extract from them the applications suitable for the time and would use them to find new paths toward their emancipation."

— Nestor Makhno,
Anarcho-communist (1888 ‐ 1934)
Anarchist Revolutionary and commander of an independent army in Ukraine

"Revolution that divests itself of ethical values thereby lays the foundation of injustice, deceit, and oppression for the future society."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"The paramount question of the day is not political, is not religious, but is economic. The crying-out demand of today is for a circle of principles that shall forever make it impossible for one man to control another by controlling the means of his existence."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"To be really medieval one should have no body. To be really modern one should have no soul. To be really Greek one should have no clothes."

— Oscar Wilde,
anarcho-individualist (1854 ‐ 1900)
Irish author and poet known for his wit.

"If you say that you reject violence when it exceeds the limits imposed by the needs of defense, they accuse you of pacifism, without understanding that violence is the whole essence of authoritarianism, just as the repudiation of violence is the whole essence of anarchism."

— Errico Malatesta,
anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1932)
Influential Italian anarchist theorist

"The lunacy of the Soviet regime must be eliminated and replaced by the vital principles of the exploited workers, on a basis of solidarity, freedom and equal voice for each and every person."

— Nestor Makhno,
Anarcho-communist (1888 ‐ 1934)
Anarchist Revolutionary and commander of an independent army in Ukraine

"Revolutionary methods must be in tune with revolutionary aims."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"There has not been one revolution in the world's history which was carried out by the working people in their own interests - by urban workers and poor peasants who do not exploit the work of others."

— Peter Arshinov,
anarcho-communist (1887 ‐ 1937)
Russian anarchist, memoirist, and metalworker

"Individualist anarchism and communist anarchism are the same, or nearly so, in terms of moral motivations and ultimate goals."

— Errico Malatesta,
anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1932)
Influential Italian anarchist theorist

"The fact that the modern state is the organizational form of an authority founded upon arbitrariness and violence in the social life of toilers is independent of whether it may be "bourgeois" or "proletarian.""

— Nestor Makhno,
Anarcho-communist (1888 ‐ 1934)
Anarchist Revolutionary and commander of an independent army in Ukraine

""Class", "power", "state", are three inseparable terms, one of which presupposes the other two."

— Mikhail Bakunin,
Collectivist anarchist (1814 ‐ 1876)
Russian revolutionary and anarchist philosopher

"It is a sad sight to see those who believe themselves to be revolutionaries unleashing their hatred on the anarchist."

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"It is a sad sight to see those who believe themselves to be revolutionaries unleashing their hatred on the anarchist."

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"I am a famous man. My name has been trumpeted to the four corners of the globe. All those people who go through so much trouble to get others to talk about them, yet don't succeed, must be very jealous about the publicity that the press has given my humble self."

— Jules Bonnot,
Anarcho-nihilist (1876 ‐ 1912)
French illegalist and bank robber

"I believe in the human soul regnant over all laws which man has made or will make; I believe there is no peace now, and there will never be peace, so long as one rules over another; I believe in the total disintegration and dissolution of the principle and practice of authority; I am an anarchist, and if for this you condemn me, I stand ready to receive your condemnation."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"The proprietor, producing neither by his own labor nor by his implement, and receiving products in exchange for nothing, is either a parasite or a thief."

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,
Mutualist (1809 ‐ 1865)
French anarchist and political philosopher

"During humankind's long centuries societies have risen and fallen, all alike in this one fact which rules all history: the great are protected, the small are crushed."

— Octave Mirbeau,
Anarcho-syndicalist, Anarcho-pacifist (1848 ‐ 1917)
French novelist, playwright and anarchist

"The morality which is born out of the present conception of the state and social hierarchy is necessarily corrupt."

— Elisee Reclus,
Anarcho-Communist (1830 ‐ 1905)
French geographer, writer and anarchist

"The philosophy of anarchism is included in the word "Liberty"; yet it is comprehensive enough to include all things else that are conducive to progress."

— Lucy Parsons,
Anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1942)
Influential American labor organizer and radical socialist

"Communism is inequality, but not as property is. Property is the exploitation of the weak by the strong. Communism is the exploitation of the strong by the weak."

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,
Mutualist (1809 ‐ 1865)
French anarchist and political philosopher

"Someone has said that it requires less mental effort to condemn than to think."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"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."

— Lucy Parsons,
Anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1942)
Influential American labor organizer and radical socialist

"Whereas we anarchists desire the extinction of the state through the social revolution and the constitution of an autonomist federal order, the Leninists desire the destruction of the bourgeois state and moreover the conquest of the state by the "proletariat.""

— Camillo Berneri,
Anarcho-Communist (1897 ‐ 1937)
Italian anarchist, philosopher and educator

"A man's natural rights are his own, against the whole world; and any infringement of them is equally a crime, whether committed by one man, or by millions; whether committed by one man, calling himself a robber, (or by any other name indicating his true character,) or by millions, calling themselves a government."

— Lysander Spooner,
Anarcho-Individualist (1808 ‐ 1887)
American political philosopher and abolitionist

"The right to vote, or equal civil rights, may be good demands, but true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in courts. It begins in woman's soul."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"The anarchist individualists do not present themselves as proletarians, absorbed only in the search for material amelioration, tied to a class determined to transform the world and to substitute a new society for the actual one."

— Emile Armand,
Anarcho-Individualist (1872 ‐ 1962)
French individualist anarchist and prolific writer

"Do not quarrel or deal in personalities. Listen to opposing arguments after you have presented your own. Learn how to remain silent and reflect. Do not try to get the better in an argument at the expense of your own sincerity."

— Elisee Reclus,
Anarcho-Communist (1830 ‐ 1905)
French geographer, writer and anarchist

"Most anarchists believe the coming change can only come through a revolution, because the possessing class will not allow a peaceful change to take place; still we are willing to work for peace at any price, except at the price of liberty."

— Lucy Parsons,
Anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1942)
Influential American labor organizer and radical socialist

"The most complete freedom for the individual, his right to full satisfaction of all his needs, are absolutely legitimate claims, and there was no need to go out to dig up Nietszche and Stirner to give them some consecration."

— Jean Grave,
Anarcho-communist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Influential French anarcho-communist writer

"It is capitalism and government which stand for disorder and violence. Anarchism is the very reverse of it; it means order without government and peace without violence."

— Alexander Berkman,
Anarcho-communist (1870 ‐ 1936)
Anarchist, political activist, writer

"Today, go blossom in the shadow of the dark and sad prisons. Go, bloom near the somber captive, and tell them truly that we love them. Tell them that through fleeting time, everything belongs to the future, that the livid conqueror can die more surely than the conquered."

— Louise Michel,
Anarcho-communist, Feminist (1830 ‐ 1905)
French anarchist and feminist revolutionary

"Although a firm friend of order, I am (in the full force of the term) an anarchist."

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,
Mutualist (1809 ‐ 1865)
French anarchist and political philosopher

"The view which sees in every capitalist only a profit machine may very well meet the demands of propaganda, but it is conceived much too narrowly and does not correspond to reality."

— Rudolf Rocker,
anarcho-syndicalist (1873 ‐ 1958)
Influential anarchist writer and speaker

"Liberate yourself as far as you can, and you have done your part; for it is not given to every one to break through all limits, or, more expressively: not to every one is that a limit which is a limit for the rest... he who overturns one of his limits may have shown others the way and the means."

— Max Stirner,
egoist anarchist (1806 ‐ 1856)
Influential philosopher and anarchist

"Whenever government assumes to deliver us from the trouble of thinking for ourselves, the only consequences it produces are those of torpor and imbecility."

— William Godwin,
social-anarchist (1756 ‐ 1836)
Prominent philosopher and anarchist

"Armies are necessary, before all things, for the defense of governments from their own oppressed and enslaved subjects."

— Leo Tolstoy,
anarcho-pacifist (1828 ‐ 1910)
Russian author, pacifist and social anarchist

"Is it not plain that all these governments are systematic poisoners, interested stupefiers of the masses?"

— Mikhail Bakunin,
Collectivist anarchist (1814 ‐ 1876)
Russian revolutionary and anarchist philosopher

"Property is impossible."

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,
Mutualist (1809 ‐ 1865)
French anarchist and political philosopher

"To be governed is to be watched over, inspected, spied on, directed, legislated at, regulated, docketed, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, assessed, weighed, censored, ordered about, by men who have neither the right, nor the knowledge, nor the virtue."

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,
Mutualist (1809 ‐ 1865)
French anarchist and political philosopher

"While we do preach perfect communism, it is not in the certainty or expectation of communism's being the social form of the future: it is in order to further men's education, and round it off as completely as possible, so that, by the time that the day of conflagration comes, they will have attained maximum emancipation."

— Fernand Pelloutier,
anarcho-syndicalist (1867 ‐ 1901)
French syndicalist and anarchist theorist.

"The state idea means something quite different from the idea of government."

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"The state idea means something quite different from the idea of government."

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"Louis Blanc has gone so far as to reverse the republic motto, as if he wanted to revolutionize the revolution. He no longer says, as everybody else says, and according to tradition, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity; he says Equality, Fraternity, Liberty!"

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,
Mutualist (1809 ‐ 1865)
French anarchist and political philosopher

"To my mind, the struggle for liberty is too great and the few steps we have gained have been won at too great a sacrifice, for the great mass of the people of this 20th century to consent to turn over to any political party the management of our social and industrial affairs."

— Lucy Parsons,
Anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1942)
Influential American labor organizer and radical socialist

"I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment."

— Bertrand Russell,
Philosophical anarchist, Libertarian socialist (1872 ‐ 1970)
Renowned philosopher, mathematician, and anarchist

"The people are asleep; they remain indifferent. They forge their own chains and do the bidding of their masters to crucify their Christs."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"I had been told that society's institutions were founded on justice and equality, and all around me I could see nothing but lies and treachery."

— Emile Henry,
Anarcho-communist, Illegalist (1872 ‐ 1894)
Influential Spanish-born French anarchist bomber

"The conditions of contemporary life encircle the workers on all sides, surround them, like water surrounds fish in the sea. The workers are not able to escape from these conditions."

— Peter Arshinov,
anarcho-communist (1887 ‐ 1937)
Russian anarchist, memoirist, and metalworker

"He who attempts to control another is a governor, an aggressor, an invader; and the nature of such invasion is not changed, whether it is made by one man upon another man, after the manner of the ordinary criminal, or by one man upon all other men, after the manner of an absolute monarch, or by all other men upon one man, after the manner of a modern democracy."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"The passion for destruction is a creative passion, too."

— Mikhail Bakunin,
Collectivist anarchist (1814 ‐ 1876)
Russian revolutionary and anarchist philosopher

"Many claim to speak in liberty's name, but few really understand her."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"These revolutionaries, bare-necked politickers, have preserved with the imprint of the collar, the moral stain of servitude, the stiff neck of despotism."

— Joseph Dejacque,
Anarcho-Communist (1821 ‐ 1864)
French early anarchocommunist, poet and essayist

"Idlers do not make history: they suffer it!"

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"Idlers do not make history: they suffer it!"

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"Every person who ever thought he had a right to assert, and went boldly and asserted it, himself, or jointly with others that shared his convictions, was a direct actionist."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Those who produce everything have nothing, and those who produce nothing have everything. Such a state of affairs can only produce antagonism between the laboring class and the owning, i.e., do-nothing, class. The fight breaks out and hatred delivers its blows."

— Marius Jacob,
Anarcho-Individualist (1879 ‐ 1954)
French anarchist and prolific burglar

"Each of you hungry tramps who read these lines, avail yourselves of those little methods of warfare which science has placed in the hands of the poor man, and you will become a power in this or any other land. Learn the use of explosives!"

— Lucy Parsons,
Anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1942)
Influential American labor organizer and radical socialist

"It cannot be sufficiently emphasized that revolution is in vain unless inspired by its ultimate ideal."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"In anarchy, there are as many "moralities" as there are anarchists, taken individually, or groups or associations of anarchists. Thus, in anarchy, one is amoral."

— Emile Armand,
Anarcho-Individualist (1872 ‐ 1962)
French individualist anarchist and prolific writer

"Wherever there is a man who exercizes authority, there is a man who resists authority."

— Oscar Wilde,
anarcho-individualist (1854 ‐ 1900)
Irish author and poet known for his wit.

"The most that a working-class party could do, even if its politicians remained honest, would be to form a strong faction in the legislatures which might, by combining its vote with one side or another, win certain political or economic palliatives."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"God and mankind have concerned themselves for nothing, for nothing but themselves. Let me then likewise concern myself for myself, who am equally with God the nothing of all others, who am my all, who am the only one."

— Max Stirner,
egoist anarchist (1806 ‐ 1856)
Influential philosopher and anarchist

"Theft is the restitution, the regaining of possession. Instead of being cloistered in a factory, like in a penal colony; instead of begging for what I had a right to, I preferred to rebel and fight my enemy face to face by making war on the rich, by attacking their goods."

— Marius Jacob,
Anarcho-Individualist (1879 ‐ 1954)
French anarchist and prolific burglar

"Those services which the community will most readily pay for it is most disagreeable to render. You are paid for being something less than a man."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"The man who would completely isolate himself from his fellow men, would return to the state of a brute animal, if the better armed species had not killed him before."

— Jean Grave,
Anarcho-communist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Influential French anarcho-communist writer

"Only the shallow know themselves."

— Oscar Wilde,
anarcho-individualist (1854 ‐ 1900)
Irish author and poet known for his wit.

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"After all, it means thirteen dollars per month, three meals a day, and a place to sleep. Yet even necessity is not sufficiently strong a factor to bring into the army an element of character and manhood."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"If the individual has a right to govern himself, all external government is tyranny. Hence the necessity of abolishing the state."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"While we prefer the republic, we must recognise and proclaim that whatever the form of government may be, so long as human society continues to be divided into different classes as a result of the hereditary inequality of occupations, of wealth, of education, and of rights, there will always be a class-restricted government and the inevitable exploitation of the majorities by the minorities."

— Mikhail Bakunin,
Collectivist anarchist (1814 ‐ 1876)
Russian revolutionary and anarchist philosopher

"I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"Anarchy's roots go deep: its spouts from the bosom of a rotten society that is falling apart; it is a violent backlash against the established order; it stands for the aspirations to equality and liberty which have entered the lists against the current authoritarianism."

— Emile Henry,
Anarcho-communist, Illegalist (1872 ‐ 1894)
Influential Spanish-born French anarchist bomber

"One should always be a little improbable."

— Oscar Wilde,
anarcho-individualist (1854 ‐ 1900)
Irish author and poet known for his wit.

"Socialism and communism both demand a degree of joint effort and administration which would beget more regulation than is wholly consistent with ideal anarchism."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Anarchism is not mysticism; it is not a discourse on beauty; it is not a cry of despair."

— Peter Arshinov,
anarcho-communist (1887 ‐ 1937)
Russian anarchist, memoirist, and metalworker

"If you consider these worthy electors as unable to look after their own interests themselves, how is it that they know how to choose for themselves the shepherds who must guide them? And how will they be able to solve this problem of social alchemy, of producing the election of a genius from the votes of a mass of fools?"

— Errico Malatesta,
anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1932)
Influential Italian anarchist theorist

"Education is an admirable thing. But it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught."

— Oscar Wilde,
anarcho-individualist (1854 ‐ 1900)
Irish author and poet known for his wit.

"All of the exploited, legal or illegal, cooperate in the state of domination."

— Emile Armand,
Anarcho-Individualist (1872 ‐ 1962)
French individualist anarchist and prolific writer

"What you have the power to be you have the right to be."

— Max Stirner,
egoist anarchist (1806 ‐ 1856)
Influential philosopher and anarchist

"Socialism, on the contrary, extends its function to the description of society as it should be, and the discovery of the means of making it what it should be."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"Anarchism is "stateless socialism.""

— Mikhail Bakunin,
Collectivist anarchist (1814 ‐ 1876)
Russian revolutionary and anarchist philosopher

"We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here, in our hearts. That world is growing this minute."

— Buenaventura Durruti,
anarcho-syndicalist (1896 ‐ 1936)
Influential Spanish anarchist and militant

"The government of man by man (under whatever name it be disguised) is oppression."

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,
Mutualist (1809 ‐ 1865)
French anarchist and political philosopher

"In that pitiless war which we have declared on the bourgeoisie, we ask for no pity. We give death, and we know how to endure it."

— Emile Henry,
Anarcho-communist, Illegalist (1872 ‐ 1894)
Influential Spanish-born French anarchist bomber

"To take something from a person and keep it for oneself: that is robbery. To take something from one person and then turn it over to another in exchange for as much money as you can get: that is business."

— Octave Mirbeau,
Anarcho-syndicalist, Anarcho-pacifist (1848 ‐ 1917)
French novelist, playwright and anarchist

"I am sorry to see friends impelled by passion drifting to the idea of vengeance, which is so little scientific, so sterile. But armed defense of a right is not violence."

— Elisee Reclus,
Anarcho-Communist (1830 ‐ 1905)
French geographer, writer and anarchist

"Emancipation or non-emancipation of woman, emancipation or non-emancipation of man - what does it mean? Is it that by nature one has rights and the other has no rights?"

— Joseph Dejacque,
Anarcho-Communist (1821 ‐ 1864)
French early anarchocommunist, poet and essayist

"The means of production being the collective work of humanity, the product should be the collective property of the race."

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"The liberty of every individual is only the reflection of his own humanity, or his human right through the conscience of all free men, his brothers and his equals."

— Mikhail Bakunin,
Collectivist anarchist (1814 ‐ 1876)
Russian revolutionary and anarchist philosopher

"The means of production being the collective work of humanity, the product should be the collective property of the race."

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"As man grows refined, he comes also to live not only for himself and in himself."

— Jean Grave,
Anarcho-communist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Influential French anarcho-communist writer

"Sometimes the poor are praised for being thrifty. But to recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less."

— Oscar Wilde,
anarcho-individualist (1854 ‐ 1900)
Irish author and poet known for his wit.

"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."

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"The oppression of one is the oppression of all, and we cannot violate the liberty of one being without violating the freedom of all of us."

— Mikhail Bakunin,
Collectivist anarchist (1814 ‐ 1876)
Russian revolutionary and anarchist philosopher

"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."

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"That patriotism which tends toward unity without regard to liberty is an evil patriotism."

— Mikhail Bakunin,
Collectivist anarchist (1814 ‐ 1876)
Russian revolutionary and anarchist philosopher

"Organization is, after all, only a means to an end. When it becomes an end in itself, it kills the spirit and the vital initiative of its members and sets up that domination by mediocrity which is the characteristic of all bureaucracies."

— Rudolf Rocker,
anarcho-syndicalist (1873 ‐ 1958)
Influential anarchist writer and speaker

"Power is cursed, that is why I am an anarchist."

— Louise Michel,
Anarcho-communist, Feminist (1830 ‐ 1905)
French anarchist and feminist revolutionary

"No, it is not life that is bad, but the conditions in which we live. Therefore we shall address ourselves not to life, but to these conditions: let us change them."

— Albert Libertad,
Anarcho-individualist (1875 ‐ 1908)
Anarchist militant and writer

"Anarchists no more want to be masters than they want to be servants - they no more want to exercise violence than to submit to it. They expose, they propose, but they do not impose."

— Emile Armand,
Anarcho-Individualist (1872 ‐ 1962)
French individualist anarchist and prolific writer

"I stand ready to negotiate, but I want no part of laws: I acknowledge none."

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,
Mutualist (1809 ‐ 1865)
French anarchist and political philosopher

"I do not believe in God, because I believe in man."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"Conceit, arrogance and egotism are the essentials of patriotism."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"Only in respecting their human character do I respect my own."

— Mikhail Bakunin,
Collectivist anarchist (1814 ‐ 1876)
Russian revolutionary and anarchist philosopher

"The one thing that the public dislike is novelty."

— Oscar Wilde,
anarcho-individualist (1854 ‐ 1900)
Irish author and poet known for his wit.

"The free expression of the hopes and aspirations of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"Obviously, the revolution will produce many misfortunes, many sufferings; but if it produced one hundred times more of them, it would still be a blessing relative to what one endures today."

— Errico Malatesta,
anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1932)
Influential Italian anarchist theorist

"Collective responsibility in revolutionary action... is a fundamental principle, which guides each one of us in our way of understanding the anarchist idea, in our determination that it should penetrate to the masses, in its spirit of sacrifice."

— Nestor Makhno,
Anarcho-communist (1888 ‐ 1934)
Anarchist Revolutionary and commander of an independent army in Ukraine

"The Bolshevik practice of the last ten years shows clearly the counter-revolutionary role of their dictatorship of the Party."

— Peter Arshinov,
anarcho-communist (1887 ‐ 1937)
Russian anarchist, memoirist, and metalworker

"The individual, his freedom and reason, are the products of society, and not vice versa: society is not the product of individuals comprising it; and the higher, the more fully the individual is developed, the greater his freedom."

— Mikhail Bakunin,
Collectivist anarchist (1814 ‐ 1876)
Russian revolutionary and anarchist philosopher

"We had never understood the meaning of these words, so common and yet so sacred: Justice, equity, liberty."

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,
Mutualist (1809 ‐ 1865)
French anarchist and political philosopher

"I am a fanatic lover of liberty, considering it as the unique condition under which intelligence, dignity and human happiness can develop and grow."

— Mikhail Bakunin,
Collectivist anarchist (1814 ‐ 1876)
Russian revolutionary and anarchist philosopher

"The whole history of man is continuous proof of the maxim that to divest one's methods of ethical concepts means to sink into the depths of utter demoralization."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"It is immoral to use private property in order to alleviate the horrible evils that result from the institution of private property."

— Oscar Wilde,
anarcho-individualist (1854 ‐ 1900)
Irish author and poet known for his wit.

"The period of the actual revolution, the so-called transitory stage, must be the introduction, the prelude to the new social conditions."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"In the name of Purity what lies are told! What queer morality it has engendered. For fear of it you dare not tell your own children the truth about their birth; the most sacred of all functions, the creation of a human being, is a subject for the most miserable falsehood."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Governmental communism, like theocratic communism, is repugnant to the worker."

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"Governmental communism, like theocratic communism, is repugnant to the worker."

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

"Ambition is the last refuge of the failure."

— Oscar Wilde,
anarcho-individualist (1854 ‐ 1900)
Irish author and poet known for his wit.

"I am but too conscious of the fact that we are born in an age when only the dull are treated seriously, and I live in terror of not being misunderstood."

— Oscar Wilde,
anarcho-individualist (1854 ‐ 1900)
Irish author and poet known for his wit.

"You anarchist ministers, you make eloquent speeches and you write brilliant articles, but it is not with speeches and articles that one wins the war and defends the revolution."

— Camillo Berneri,
Anarcho-Communist (1897 ‐ 1937)
Italian anarchist, philosopher and educator

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."

— Oscar Wilde,
anarcho-individualist (1854 ‐ 1900)
Irish author and poet known for his wit.

"Oppressed brother, banish all power from within you and do not allow any to be established either over you or over your brother, be he near or far!"

— Nestor Makhno,
Anarcho-communist (1888 ‐ 1934)
Anarchist Revolutionary and commander of an independent army in Ukraine

"The true object of education is not to render the pupil the mere copy of his preceptor, it is rather to be rejoiced in, than lamented, that various reading should lead him into new trains of thinking."

— William Godwin,
social-anarchist (1756 ‐ 1836)
Prominent philosopher and anarchist

"Leninism constitutes, without any doubt, a return to the revolutionary spirit of Marxism, but it also constitutes a return to the fallacies and abstractions of Marxist metaphysics."

— Camillo Berneri,
Anarcho-Communist (1897 ‐ 1937)
Italian anarchist, philosopher and educator

"In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt."

— Mikhail Bakunin,
Collectivist anarchist (1814 ‐ 1876)
Russian revolutionary and anarchist philosopher

"By anarchist spirit I mean that deeply human sentiment, which aims at the good of all, freedom and justice for all, solidarity and love among the people; which is not an exclusive characteristic only of self-declared anarchists, but inspires all people who have a generous heart and an open mind."

— Errico Malatesta,
anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1932)
Influential Italian anarchist theorist

"The poor are to blame for there being rich men."

— Max Stirner,
egoist anarchist (1806 ‐ 1856)
Influential philosopher and anarchist

"A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which humanity is always landing."

— Oscar Wilde,
anarcho-individualist (1854 ‐ 1900)
Irish author and poet known for his wit.

"Liberty is not daughter of order but mother of order."

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,
Mutualist (1809 ‐ 1865)
French anarchist and political philosopher

"This perversion of the ethical values soon crystallized into the all-dominating slogan of the Communist Party: THE END JUSTIFIES ALL MEANS."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"Aggression is simply another name for government."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"Proletarians of the world, look into the depths of your own beings, seek out the truth and realise it yourselves: you will find it nowhere else."

— Peter Arshinov,
anarcho-communist (1887 ‐ 1937)
Russian anarchist, memoirist, and metalworker

"Education is a slow process, and may not come too quickly."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"There are even moments when the authority of the socialists and communists is worse than the bourgeois, for they tear down their own ideas and trample on them."

— Nestor Makhno,
Anarcho-communist (1888 ‐ 1934)
Anarchist Revolutionary and commander of an independent army in Ukraine

"The state, therefore, is the most flagrant, the most cynical, and the most complete negation of humanity."

— Mikhail Bakunin,
Collectivist anarchist (1814 ‐ 1876)
Russian revolutionary and anarchist philosopher

"The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"If there be such a thing as truth, it must infallibly be struck out by the collision of mind with mind."

— William Godwin,
social-anarchist (1756 ‐ 1836)
Prominent philosopher and anarchist

"Trades organization is still only in the embryonic stages. Once rid of politicians' tyranny, it can stride out freely and, like the child learning to take his first steps, toddle along the road of independence."

— Fernand Pelloutier,
anarcho-syndicalist (1867 ‐ 1901)
French syndicalist and anarchist theorist.

"Government is as unreal, as intangible, as unapproachable as God."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"The subject is not whether we accomplish anarchism today, tomorrow, or within ten centuries, but that we walk towards anarchism today, tomorrow, and always."

— Errico Malatesta,
anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1932)
Influential Italian anarchist theorist

"Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate."

— Bertrand Russell,
Philosophical anarchist, Libertarian socialist (1872 ‐ 1970)
Renowned philosopher, mathematician, and anarchist

"For two decades the supporters of Bolshevism have been hammering it into the masses that dictatorship is a vital necessity for the defense of the so-called proletarian interests against the assaults of counter-revolution and for paving the way for socialism."

— Rudolf Rocker,
anarcho-syndicalist (1873 ‐ 1958)
Influential anarchist writer and speaker

"The inherent tendency of the state is to concentrate, to narrow, and monopolize all social activities."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"The strongest bulwark of authority is uniformity; the least divergence from it is the greatest crime."

— Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist (1869 ‐ 1940)
Influential anarchist, political activist, writer.

"The really wholesome, joyous life of the individual or group is not built up with the aid of power and programs that seek to enclose it within artificial constructs and written laws."

— Nestor Makhno,
Anarcho-communist (1888 ‐ 1934)
Anarchist Revolutionary and commander of an independent army in Ukraine

"Without doubt, conventional right, contract and law, even universally and directly exercised, is not natural right, or justice. It is a compromise between anarchy and authority, and everything that is not completely just is injustice."

— Joseph Dejacque,
Anarcho-Communist (1821 ‐ 1864)
French early anarchocommunist, poet and essayist

"Whether individually or as a countless mass, man finds himself at the mercy of this band of drones going under the name of "governors and masters," when in reality they are nothing but straightforward exploiters and oppressors."

— Nestor Makhno,
Anarcho-communist (1888 ‐ 1934)
Anarchist Revolutionary and commander of an independent army in Ukraine

"Let the guarantee of free speech be in every man's determination to use it, and we shall have no need of paper declarations."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Anarchism embraces two worlds: the world of philosophy, of ideas, and the world of practice, of activity. The two are intimately linked."

— Peter Arshinov,
anarcho-communist (1887 ‐ 1937)
Russian anarchist, memoirist, and metalworker

"It is not a crumb of bread, but the harvest of the entire world that the human race needs, without exploiters and without exploited."

— Louise Michel,
Anarcho-communist, Feminist (1830 ‐ 1905)
French anarchist and feminist revolutionary

"I do not expect any help for a libertarian revolution from any government in the world... we expect no help, not even from our own government, in the last analysis."

— Buenaventura Durruti,
anarcho-syndicalist (1896 ‐ 1936)
Influential Spanish anarchist and militant

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

— Mikhail Bakunin,
Collectivist anarchist (1814 ‐ 1876)
Russian revolutionary and anarchist philosopher

"I offered to stay awake to let the others go to sleep, and everyone laughed, saying that I would not even hear the cannon! But afterwards, one by one, they fell asleep, and I am watchful over all of them, while working for those who are to come."

— Camillo Berneri,
Anarcho-Communist (1897 ‐ 1937)
Italian anarchist, philosopher and educator

"Resignation is death. Revolt is life."

— Albert Libertad,
Anarcho-individualist (1875 ‐ 1908)
Anarchist militant and writer

"They will die of hunger at the proprietor's door, on the edge of that property which was their birthright; and the proprietor, watching them die, will exclaim, "So perish idlers and vagrants!""

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,
Mutualist (1809 ‐ 1865)
French anarchist and political philosopher

"The only thing I am not entitled to is what I do not do with a free cheer, that is, that I do not entitle myself to."

— Max Stirner,
egoist anarchist (1806 ‐ 1856)
Influential philosopher and anarchist

"Why, liberty of the press is only permission of the press, and the state never will or can voluntarily permit me to grind it to nothingness by the press."

— Max Stirner,
egoist anarchist (1806 ‐ 1856)
Influential philosopher and anarchist

"It is often said that anarchists live in a world of dreams to come, and do not see the things which happen today. We do see them only too well, and in their true colors, and that is what makes us carry the hatchet into the forest of prejudice that besets us."

— Peter Kropotkin,
Anarcho-communist (1842 ‐ 1921)
Russian anarchist and philosopher

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