20th Century – Page 2 – Anarchist Quotes

"The existing system will be quickest and most radically overthrown by the annihilation of its exponents. Therefore, massacres of the enemies of the people must be set in motion."

— Johann Most,
Anarcho-communist, Propagandist (1846 ‐ 1906)
Prominent German-American anarchist and newspaper editor

"If the federal government had access to every email you've ever written and every phone call you've ever made, it's almost certain that they could find something you've done which violates a provision in the 27,000 pages of federal statues or 10,000 administrative regulations. You probably do have something to hide, you just don't know it yet."

— Moxie Marlinspike,
Digital Anarchist
Anarchist and cybersecurity professional

"I am not a robber but one who has been robbed, someone who brings justice, who says that everything belongs to everyone, and that it is this clear logic of the anarchist idea, which makes your legs tremble."

— Clement Duval,
Serial Burglar (1850 ‐ 1935)
French anarchist and criminal.

"Ever since the advent of "Scientific Socialism" every attempt to better the conditions of mankind has been labelled "Utopian" by the followers of Karl Marx."

— Laurance Labadie,
Individualist Anarchist (1898 ‐ 1975)
Anarchist, social critic and son of Joseph Labadie

"Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else."

— Malcolm X,
Charismatic Orator (1925 ‐ 1965)
Influential African-American leader

"As surprising as it might seem, there's a strong parallel between this free market vision of abundance and the Marxist vision of full communism."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"Everybody who has ever worked for a corporation knows that corporations conspire all the time. Politicians conspire all the time, pot-dealers conspire not to get caught by the narcs, the world is full of conspiracies. Conspiracy is natural primate behavior."

— Robert Anton Wilson,
prolific anarchist thinker (1932 ‐ 2007)
Author, futurist and self-described agnostic mystic

"If you feel the need to vote in order to avert the immediate threat of fascism, by all means do so... in the meantime, we have a new society to build."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"The protesting students are anarchist because they are in a historical situation to which anarchism is their only possible response."

— Paul Goodman,
Visionary Thinker (1911 ‐ 1972)
Political activist, poet and writer.

"From the outset of the industrial revolution, what is nostalgically called "laissez-faire" was in fact a system of continuing state intervention to subsidize accumulation, guarantee privilege, and maintain work discipline."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"An armed citizenry is the first defense, the best defense, and the final defense against tyranny."

— Edward Abbey,
eco-anarchist (1927 ‐ 1989)
American author and essayist noted for radical environmentalist views.

"I wish to say that we anarchists have never changed our position. We are anarchists as of old and still pursue the same ideals."

— Frederica Montseny,
Feminist Anarchist (1905 ‐ 1994)
Anarchist, novelist, and Minister of Health

"The present Russian regime and the present order of things can not be called bourgeois -- still less can it be called socialistic or communistic."

— Gregori Maximoff,
Anarchist Scholar (1893 ‐ 1950)
Political activist, author, and leading anarcho-syndicalist.

"We must ask in a manly and proud posture and not beg on our knees."

— Severino Di Giovanni,
Relentless Activist (1901 ‐ 1931)
Anarchist, writer, and editor

"Experience proves to the wise man that revolutions never have lasting results. Reason tells him that lies are not refuted by lies, and that violence isn't destroyed by violence."

— Han Ryner,
Pacifist Philosopher (1861 ‐ 1938)
French individualist anarchist and pacifist

"Actually inventing or producing things is at best the path to small-time wealth. The really big fortunes -- the billionaire kind -- instead come from controlling the circumstances under which other people are allowed to produce things."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"Plebeian and bourgeois are equivalent. They deserve each other."

— Renzo Novatore,
Rebellious Philosopher (1890 ‐ 1922)
Italian anarchist and anti-fascist

"The keeping of power is followed by certain benefits that incite the ambition of many who look at it as an end rather than a means, and aspire power to enjoy it."

— Mario Ferreira Dos Santos,
Influential Thinker (1907 ‐ 1968)
Brazilian philosopher and political activist

"Freedom, we want nothing more than freedom, since what freedom does not do, not one institution whatsoever will be able to make possible."

— Ricardo Mella,
Mutualist Thinker (1861 ‐ 1925)
Influential Spanish anarchist thinker

"The majority can hardly accept the existence of anything but the two extremes: masters and slaves."

— Lev Chernyi,
Poet, Anarchist (1893 ‐ 1921)
Anarchist and poet who died in a show trial.

"I am not a thief but a sincere revolutionary, who has the courage of his convictions and who is devoted to his cause."

— Clement Duval,
Serial Burglar (1850 ‐ 1935)
French anarchist and criminal.

"The revolution did not fail, it was defeated militarily. Perhaps with the passage of time it would have developed a paralyzing bureaucracy but we will never know."

— Abel Paz,
Anarchist Activist (1921 ‐ 2009)
Spanish anarcho-syndicalist and historian.

"I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight."

— Malcolm X,
Charismatic Orator (1925 ‐ 1965)
Influential African-American leader

"The main difference between the anarchists and the socialists, including the Marxists, lies in the fact that while the socialists maintain that the state must be taken over as the first step toward its dissolution, the anarchists argue that, since power corrupts, any seizure of the existing structure of authority can only lead to its perpetuation."

— George Woodcock,
peaceful visionary (1912 ‐ 1995)
Canadian writer and anarchist historian

"Nobody scolded or hated capitalism more than him, but the subtle mind of Proudhon saw the vileness of communism."

— Lev Chernyi,
Poet, Anarchist (1893 ‐ 1921)
Anarchist and poet who died in a show trial.

"Man will only be able to act usefully when he will have managed to destroy all lies, freed himself from all the superstitions given birth to by error, sought the truth in the jumble of knowledge and observations."

— Andre Lorulot,
Provocative Anarchist (1885 ‐ 1963)
French Anarchist, pacifist and free-thinker.

"Let us light the fuse on the dynamite of vengeance!"

— Severino Di Giovanni,
Relentless Activist (1901 ‐ 1931)
Anarchist, writer, and editor

"The act of revolution brings an immediate transformation in the sense that the foundations of society are radically changed, but a progressive transformation in the sense that communism is a constant development."

— Georges Fontenis,
Libertarian Revolutionary (1920 ‐ 2010)
French libertarian communist, revolutionary and syndicalist

"In a society where waste and planned obsolescence were no longer subsidized, and there were no barriers to competition socializing the full benefits of technological progress, we could probably enjoy our present quality of life with a fifteen-hour work week."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"Any pretense of reducing the role of state in capitalism is a lie. It is impossible to smash the state without, as an immediate consequence, smashing capitalism along with it."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"We have confirmed something we only knew in theory, namely that revolution, in which uncontrolled and uncontrollable forces operate imperiously, is blind and destructive, grandiose and cruel."

— Frederica Montseny,
Feminist Anarchist (1905 ‐ 1994)
Anarchist, novelist, and Minister of Health

"The freedom of everyone, and thereby the freedom of each individual, requires community in socialism."

— Erich Muhsam,
Anarchist Writer (1878 ‐ 1934)
German-Jewish Antifascist Anarchist, Writer

"Let us not lose time asking an imaginary god for what only human effort can obtain for us."

— Abel Paz,
Anarchist Activist (1921 ‐ 2009)
Spanish anarcho-syndicalist and historian.

"Rights have never been granted by authority. They have always been asserted against authority, and won from it."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"Let us not lose time asking others to give us what we can obtain ourselves."

— Abel Paz,
Anarchist Activist (1921 ‐ 2009)
Spanish anarcho-syndicalist and historian.

"To analyze ownership, such as it is now constituted, is a chore little more than superfluous. Its justification has yet to be formulated; nobody has ventured to defend it as anything more than something necessary."

— Ricardo Mella,
Mutualist Thinker (1861 ‐ 1925)
Influential Spanish anarchist thinker

"Indeed, in many cases, maliciousness and stupidity will put many obstacles in the road of the new idea. That is the reason why hard struggles must be fought for unconditional mutual tolerance, until it is finally achieved. Only from then on will everything proceed automatically, science will bloom and advance, because the necessary foundation for every progress, namely experimental freedom and free research have been achieved."

— Max Nettlau,
Prolific historian (1865 ‐ 1944)
Historian and prolific writer on anarchism

"I envy the savages. And I will cry to them in a loud voice: "Save yourselves, civilization is coming.""

— Bruno Filippi,
Rebel Writer (1900 ‐ 1919)
Italian individualist anarchist and writer

"The domination of man by the creation of man is even more ridiculous than the domination of man by man."

— George Woodcock,
peaceful visionary (1912 ‐ 1995)
Canadian writer and anarchist historian

"You can't separate peace from freedom, because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."

— Malcolm X,
Charismatic Orator (1925 ‐ 1965)
Influential African-American leader

"We live in a nightmare of falsehoods, and there are few who are sufficiently awake and aware to see things as they are. Our first duty is to clear away illusions and recover a sense of reality."

— Nikolai Berdyaev,
Philosopher, Activist (1874 ‐ 1948)
Philosopher and political activist

"Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery."

— Malcolm X,
Charismatic Orator (1925 ‐ 1965)
Influential African-American leader

"Anarchy -- the sovereignty of the individual over his own actions -- is the goal for which we strive. Communism is one of those incidents that come afterwards."

— Joseph Labadie,
Labor Activist (1850 ‐ 1933)
American labor organizer, anarchist

"Is work a social or a natural law? Work is a natural law worsened by society."

— Han Ryner,
Pacifist Philosopher (1861 ‐ 1938)
French individualist anarchist and pacifist

"If the Russian revolution was a victory, who won? The workers? No. On the other hand, the Commune of Paris was a great working class victory. Ours, too."

— Abel Paz,
Anarchist Activist (1921 ‐ 2009)
Spanish anarcho-syndicalist and historian.

"Ultimately, anarchist collectivism aspires to the spontaneous organization of society by means of free agreement, without asserting processes, or a necessary result."

— Ricardo Mella,
Mutualist Thinker (1861 ‐ 1925)
Influential Spanish anarchist thinker

"All past revolutions were in the end, bourgeois and conservative."

— Renzo Novatore,
Rebellious Philosopher (1890 ‐ 1922)
Italian anarchist and anti-fascist

"To monotonously live the mouldy hours of the ordinary people, the submissive, the accommodated, a life of convenience, is not living, it is only vegetating and carrying around an amorphous mass of flesh and bones. To life one should give the exquisite elevation of the rebellion of the arms and the mind."

— Severino Di Giovanni,
Relentless Activist (1901 ‐ 1931)
Anarchist, writer, and editor

"The revolutionary trade unions, in the view of the anarchists, are not only organs of the struggle against the contemporary structure; they are also the cells of the future society."

— Gregori Maximoff,
Anarchist Scholar (1893 ‐ 1950)
Political activist, author, and leading anarcho-syndicalist.

"I think the role of the revolutionary movement is still in workplace organising, but I also think, in community organisation."

— Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin,
African-American Anarchist
An African-American anarchist and former Black Panther

"In Germany, Austria-Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Belgium, England, the trade union organizations were political; they tailored their policies to be in accord with the socialist parties; can you deny that they collaborated in the war?"

— Angel Pestana,
Ideological Leader (1886 ‐ 1937)
Anarchist and Trade Unionist

"The individualist is like a wolf who prefers the dangers of liberty to the routine of domestication. Individualists compare themselves to the bird who would prefer to suffer and struggle on its branch than to die a slow death in the servitude of a gilded cage."

— Andre Lorulot,
Provocative Anarchist (1885 ‐ 1963)
French Anarchist, pacifist and free-thinker.

"Fate and freedom alike play a part in history; and there are times, as in wars and revolutions, when fate is the stronger of the two."

— Nikolai Berdyaev,
Philosopher, Activist (1874 ‐ 1948)
Philosopher and political activist

"I actually think that law enforcement should be difficult, and I think it should actually be possible to break the law."

— Moxie Marlinspike,
Digital Anarchist
Anarchist and cybersecurity professional

"In all times, the proletarian was only able to rise above his poverty when -- through his own efforts combined with his brothers' -- he himself created his own wealth."

— Mario Ferreira Dos Santos,
Influential Thinker (1907 ‐ 1968)
Brazilian philosopher and political activist

"Ever since FDR and Truman crafted the postwar order at the end of WWII, the central goal of U.S. security policy has been to globalize the economy, expand the volume of international trade and maintain institutional arrangements for propping up global corporate rule."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"Abundant cheap credit would drastically alter the balance of power between capital and labor, and returns on labor would replace returns on capital as the dominant form of economic activity."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"We must make the world safe for poverty without dependence on government."

— John Cage,
Influential Anarchist (1912 ‐ 1992)
Composer, music theorist, philosopher

"The god of the Christians, as we have seen, is the god who makes promises only to break them; who sends them pestilence and disease in order to heal them; a god who demoralizes mankind in order to improve it."

— Johann Most,
Anarcho-communist, Propagandist (1846 ‐ 1906)
Prominent German-American anarchist and newspaper editor

"Anarchist communism in Spain differs from collectivism in that it denies all organization for the present and for the future."

— Ricardo Mella,
Mutualist Thinker (1861 ‐ 1925)
Influential Spanish anarchist thinker

"The old motives of profit and self-interest will cease to dominate economic life. Instead the incentive will be the good of the members of society, without distinction."

— George Woodcock,
peaceful visionary (1912 ‐ 1995)
Canadian writer and anarchist historian

"What one needs to do at every moment of one's life is to put an end to the old world and to begin a new world."

— Nikolai Berdyaev,
Philosopher, Activist (1874 ‐ 1948)
Philosopher and political activist

"I do not want to unite with the multitude of those who flatter the proletariat, excusing them, praising them, adorning them with wreathes."

— Bruno Filippi,
Rebel Writer (1900 ‐ 1919)
Italian individualist anarchist and writer

"But we must create in each person a sense of responsibility in order that each one of us can have the right to enjoy all his rights."

— Frederica Montseny,
Feminist Anarchist (1905 ‐ 1994)
Anarchist, novelist, and Minister of Health

"In the face of dogmas, of despots, of the sentimental, of charlatans and regimenters, humanity's future belongs to reason."

— Andre Lorulot,
Provocative Anarchist (1885 ‐ 1963)
French Anarchist, pacifist and free-thinker.

"If you consider yourself a centrist, you're being played."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"Apart from the individualist faction, we are all socialist anarchists and all in favor of community. I say all, because collectivism, as the Spanish anarchists understand it, is only a degree of the community of which, in their turn, those who call themselves communists do not reject a single word."

— Ricardo Mella,
Mutualist Thinker (1861 ‐ 1925)
Influential Spanish anarchist thinker

"Anarchic socialism and the revolutionary spirit still survive in Spain; they will do their work and the solidarity of the other nations will not fail us."

— Ricardo Mella,
Mutualist Thinker (1861 ‐ 1925)
Influential Spanish anarchist thinker

"The wise man knows that the oppressed who complain aspire to be oppressors. He relieves them according to his means, but he doesn't believe in salvation through common action."

— Han Ryner,
Pacifist Philosopher (1861 ‐ 1938)
French individualist anarchist and pacifist

"Revolution is an inalienable right of mankind. Freedom is an imperishable birth right of all"

— Bhagat Singh,
Revolutionary socialist (1907 ‐ 1931)
Revolutionary socialist and political activist.

"Imagination is very important to having vision and trying to find things that are different, alternate ways."

— Vermin Supreme,
anarcho-humorist
Perennial candidate and performance artist.

"Money should be for ponies, not for war, I think."

— Vermin Supreme,
anarcho-humorist
Perennial candidate and performance artist.

"When you create Hope in people, you create expectations. When you do not fulfill those expectations, when the change becomes more of the same old, same old, the Hope that was created can only turn to anger, frustration and bitter disappointment."

— Vermin Supreme,
anarcho-humorist
Perennial candidate and performance artist.

"Anarchism is the attempt to eradicate domination."

— John Zerzan,
Anarcho-primitivist
An influential contemporary anarchist and primitivist philosopher

"Like an operating system, the State defines us in relation to itself and each other. It defines us, for example, as citizens or residents, households and taxpayers. And these definitions make clear whether the state approves of our behavior."

— Eric Laursen,
Political Activist
American author, journalist, activist

"Ask for work. If they don't give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, then take bread."

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

"As a social anarchist, I believe that capitalism itself is an inherently exploitative hierarchical situation - you do have a boss, you do have somebody in charge."

— Vermin Supreme,
anarcho-humorist
Perennial candidate and performance artist.

"Anarchism's outward form is a free, non-governed society, which offers freedom, equality and solidarity for its members. Its foundations are to be found in man’s sense of mutual responsibility, which has remained unchanged in all places and times."

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

"The darkling plain is here. This is the waste land: England, America, Russia, China, Israel, France....And we are here as victims, or as spectators, or as perpetrators of tortures, massacres, poisonings, manipulations, despoliation."

— Fredy Perlman,
anarcho-communist (1934 ‐ 1985)
Anarchist author and activist

"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,
Anarcho-communist, Propagandist (1846 ‐ 1906)
Prominent German-American anarchist and newspaper editor

"The real transformation of society will come only in love, in work, and in stillness."

— Gustav Landauer,
Anarcho-socialist (1870 ‐ 1919)
Influential theoretician of anarchism and socialist activist

"I think the question is not about communists and individualists, but rather about anarchists and non-anarchists."

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

"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,
eco-anarchist (1927 ‐ 1989)
American author and essayist noted for radical environmentalist views.

"My personal view of the anarch-capitalists is that it's an oxymoron."

— Vermin Supreme,
anarcho-humorist
Perennial candidate and performance artist.

"They may kill me, but they cannot kill my ideas. They can crush my body, but they will not be able to crush my spirit"

— Bhagat Singh,
Revolutionary socialist (1907 ‐ 1931)
Revolutionary socialist and political activist.

"The coming Revolution could render no greater service to humanity than by making the wage system, in all its forms, an impossibility, and by rendering Communism, which is the negation of wage-slavery, the only possible solution."

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

"The coming Revolution could render no greater service to humanity than by making the wage system, in all its forms, an impossibility, and by rendering Communism, which is the negation of wage-slavery, the only possible solution."

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

"Governments oppress mankind in two ways, either directly, by brute force, that is physical violence, or indirectly, by depriving them of the means of subsistence and thus reducing them to helplessness at discretion."

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

"Unfortunately, there are still a number of people who continue in the fatal belief that government rests on natural laws, that it maintains social order and harmony, that it diminishes crime, and that it prevents the lazy man from fleecing his fellows."

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

"Capitalism is the same everywhere. In order to survive and prosper it needs a permanent situation of partial scarcity: it needs it to maintain its prices and to create hungry masses to work under any conditions."

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

"In Russia the so-called dictatorship of the proletariat has not led to Socialism, but to the domination of a new bureaucracy over the proletariat and the whole people."

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

"The people themselves, and only the people, determine the rhythm of our fight."

— Federica Montseny,
Anarchist Feminist (1905 ‐ 1994)
Anarchist and author of novels

"There can be no doubt that the Anarchist Idea, denying government, is by its very nature opposed to violence, which is the essence of every authoritarian system - the mode of action of every government"

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

"We have become a civilization based on work—not even “productive work” but work as an end and meaning in itself."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"The struggle is so great that the triumph over fascism alone is worth the sacrifice of our lives."

— Federica Montseny,
Anarchist Feminist (1905 ‐ 1994)
Anarchist and author of novels

"Shit jobs tend to be blue collar and pay by the hour, whereas bullshit jobs tend to be white collar and salaried."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"People get accustomed to the established order of things and tremble at the idea of change. It is this lethargic spirit that needs be replaced by the revolutionary spirit"

— Bhagat Singh,
Revolutionary socialist (1907 ‐ 1931)
Revolutionary socialist and political activist.

"Power operates only destructively, bent always on forcing every manifestation of life into the straitjacket of its laws. Its intellectual form of expression is dead dogma, its physical form brute force."

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

"War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle; therefore they take boys from one village and another village; stick them into uniforms, equip them with guns, and let them loose like wild beasts against each other."

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

"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,
eco-anarchist (1927 ‐ 1989)
American author and essayist noted for radical environmentalist views.

"The anarchist conclusion is that every kind of human activity should begin from what from what is local and immediate, should link in a network with no centre and no directing agency, hiving off new cells as the original grows."

— Colin Ward,
Anarcho-mutualist (1924 ‐ 2010)
British writer and anarchist

"Considering that our culture invented napalm and nuclear weapons, I'm not sure we're in a position to judge the smaller scale violence of other cultures."

— John Zerzan,
Anarcho-primitivist
An influential contemporary anarchist and primitivist philosopher

"Socialism greatly needs Anarchism as a critic and to keep it from sacrificing the individual and his originality to the domination of the mass."

— John William Lloyd,
Anarchist Thinker (1857 ‐ 1940)
American individualist anarchist

"To condone ferocious anti-human feelings and raise them to the level of principle as a tactic for a movement... is both evil and counter-revolutionary."

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

"The aim is not therefore to liberate some 'essential self' by throwing off the burden of government and the State, but to develop the self in creative and voluntary relations with others."

— Peter Marshall,
Anarchist Thinker
Historian, philosopher, and writer.

"We tried many times before to speed on the social revolution in Spain; attempted to stir up the feelings of the people and to raise the banner of Libertarian Communism."

— Federica Montseny,
Anarchist Feminist (1905 ‐ 1994)
Anarchist and author of novels

"The state is a social relationship; a certain way of people relating to one another. It can be destroyed by creating new social relationships; ie, by people relating to one another differently."

— Gustav Landauer,
Anarcho-socialist (1870 ‐ 1919)
Influential theoretician of anarchism and socialist activist

"Common to all Anarchists is the desire to free society of all political and social coercive institutions which stand in the way of development of a free humanity."

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

"Anarchists believe we can run our lives without the government."

— Vermin Supreme,
anarcho-humorist
Perennial candidate and performance artist.

"It’s hard to imagine a surer sign that one is dealing with an irrational economic system than the fact that the prospect of eliminating drudgery is considered to be a problem."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"For Christian anarchists...the goal of anarchy is theonomy — the rule, the ordering, the arky of God."

— Vernard Eller,
Religious Pacifist (1927 ‐ 2007)
Christian anarchist and author

"Anarchism is for liberty, and neither for nor against anything else … I define Anarchism as the belief in the greatest amount of liberty compatible with equality of liberty; or, in other words, as the belief in every liberty except the liberty to invade."

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

"The Anarcho-Syndicalists know that wars are only waged in the interest of the ruling classes; they believe, therefore, that any means is justifiable that can prevent the organised murder of peoples."

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

"While we should mobilise to restrain offenders, we must begin to realise that only the community will effectively deal with the matter. Not the racist Capitalist system, with its repressive police, courts and prisons."

— Lorenzo Komboa’Ervin,
Activist, Author
African-American author, activist, and anarchist

"We are the slaves of slaves. We are exploited more ruthlessly than men."

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

"Anarchy is synonymous with Socialism. Because both signify the abolition of exploitation and of the domination of man over man, whether maintained by the force of arms or by the monopolization of the means of life."

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

"Just as you cannot see, at pleasure, with your ears and you cannot, at will, hear with your eyes so too you cannot make the state act in the interests of the working people. As an organ in the social body, its purpose is for the repression of self-determination."

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

"Revolutionary liberation must be a self-liberation that reaches social dimensions, not mass liberation or class liberation behind which lurks the rule of an elite, a hierarchy and a state."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"The individual cannot bargain with the State. The State recognizes no coinage but power: and it issues the coins itself."

— Ursula K. Le Guin,
anarcho-feminist (1929 ‐ 2018)
Influential author and political activist

"And capital punishment, however ineffective it may be and through whatever ignorance it may be resorted to, is a strictly defensive act, - at least in theory."

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

"Women make natural anarchists and revolutionaries because they've always been second-class citizens, kinda having had to claw their way up."

— Kim Gordon,
Musician, Artist
Anarchist, political activist, and musician

"You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere."

— Ursula K. Le Guin,
anarcho-feminist (1929 ‐ 2018)
Influential author and political activist

"Prisons are universities of crime, maintained by the state."

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

"The police represent the authority of the state, the willingness of the state to use violence to assert their will."

— Vermin Supreme,
anarcho-humorist
Perennial candidate and performance artist.

"Prisons are universities of crime, maintained by the state."

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

"The anti-sexualism of authoritarian societies and the people who run them does not spring from conviction (they themselves have sex), but from the vague perception that freedom here might lead to a liking for freedom elsewhere."

— Alex Comfort,
Anarcho-pacifist (1920 ‐ 2000)
British scientist and novelist, advocate of free love

"The anarchists, on behalf of the proletariat, therefore consider it necessary to show the proletariat that it will have to win a gigantic battle before it realizes its goals."

— Johann Most,
Anarcho-communist, Propagandist (1846 ‐ 1906)
Prominent German-American anarchist and newspaper editor

"Communism made through the will of a government instead of through the direct and voluntary work of groups of workers does not really appeal to me. If it was possible, it would be the most suffocating tyranny to which human society has ever been subjected."

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

"In Spain, we should have enough intelligence, enough sense of individual and collective responsibility to do for ourselves that which would be imposed upon us by a dictatorship."

— Federica Montseny,
Anarchist Feminist (1905 ‐ 1994)
Anarchist and author of novels

"The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"Our masters have not heard the people's voice for generations and it is much, much louder than they care to remember."

— Alan Moore,
individualist anarchist
English writer known for graphic novels.

"Impossibility never prevented anything from happening."

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

"Your pretty empire took so long to build, now, with a snap of history's fingers, down it goes."

— Alan Moore,
individualist anarchist
English writer known for graphic novels.

"Identifying as a Pagan, feminist, Witch, and anarchist is possibly a way to alarm great segments of the general public, but at least it keeps me from sinking into a boring and respectable middle age."

— Starhawk,
Anarcho-paganism
American writer, teacher and activist

"People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take."

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

"No great idea in its beginning can ever be within the law. How can it be within the law? The law is stationary. The law is fixed. The law is a chariot wheel which binds us all regardless of conditions or place or time."

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

"The state is not something which can be destroyed by a revolution, but is a condition, a certain relationship between human beings, a mode of human behaviour; we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving differently."

— Colin Ward,
Anarcho-mutualist (1924 ‐ 2010)
British writer and anarchist

"The urge for social justice can only develop properly and be effective when it grows out of man's sense of personal freedom and is based on that. In other words Socialism will be free or it will not be at all."

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

"Police are bureaucrats with weapons."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"Anarchism has but one infallible, unchangeable motto, 'Freedom.' Freedom to discover any truth, freedom to develop, to live naturally and fully."

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

"One who is constantly striving to force everything into a mechanical order at last becomes a machine himself and loses all human feeling."

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

"Give us what belongs to us in peace, and if you don't give it to us in peace, we will take it by force."

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

"Money has no essence. It's not really anything; therefore, its nature has always been and presumably always will be a matter of political contention."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"Well, mutual aid is a very critical and important thing. For a while, I was saying libertarians have no souls, but I promised them I wouldn't if they hammered home the importance of mutual aid."

— Vermin Supreme,
anarcho-humorist
Perennial candidate and performance artist.

"Hate does not produce love, and by hate one cannot remake the world."

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

"Be strong. Overflow with emotional and intellectual energy, and you will spread your intelligence, your love, your energy of action broadcast among others! This is what all moral teaching comes to."

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

"Fortunately, no country was ever more suited for anarchist agitation than present-day America."

— Johann Most,
Anarcho-communist, Propagandist (1846 ‐ 1906)
Prominent German-American anarchist and newspaper editor

"Be strong. Overflow with emotional and intellectual energy, and you will spread your intelligence, your love, your energy of action broadcast among others! This is what all moral teaching comes to."

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

"It is impossible to achieve a harmonization of man and nature without creating a human community that lives in a lasting balance with its natural environment."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"Anarchism's lone objective is to reach a point at which the belligerence of some humans against humanity, in whatever form, comes to a halt."

— Gustav Landauer,
Anarcho-socialist (1870 ‐ 1919)
Influential theoretician of anarchism and socialist activist

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

— Ammon Hennacy,
Christian anarchist (1893 ‐ 1970)
American Christian Anarchist and Social Activist

"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,
Anarcho-communist, Propagandist (1846 ‐ 1906)
Prominent German-American anarchist and newspaper editor

"Anarchists have a 'bad name' in the media, not because they can point to one indiscriminate massacre by anarchists--there have been none--but because the one thing holders of power fear is that they personally should be held responsible for their own actions"

— Stuart Christie,
Anarcho-communist (1946 ‐ 2020)
Anarchist writer, publisher and activist

"There are no hierarchies in nature other than those imposed by hierarchical modes of human thought, but rather differences merely in function between and within living things."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"The mutual-aid tendency in man has so remote an origin, and is so deeply interwoven with all the past evolution of the human race, that is has been maintained by mankind up to the present time, notwithstanding all vicissitudes of history."

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

"The mutual-aid tendency in man has so remote an origin, and is so deeply interwoven with all the past evolution of the human race, that is has been maintained by mankind up to the present time, notwithstanding all vicissitudes of history."

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

"If I can't dance to it, it's not my revolution."

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

"We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words."

— Ursula K. Le Guin,
anarcho-feminist (1929 ‐ 2018)
Influential author and political activist

"Bodies and the bullets are real. Painfully real. The concrete does not self-organize into the Wall. No border, invented by humans minds, asserts its own existence. No gun shoots itself. There is human action behind every border, every wall."

— Jamie Heckert,
Post-Anarchist
An anarchist active in postanarchism and queer anarchism

"Authority, when first detecting chaos at its heels, will entertain the vilest schemes to save its orderly facade."

— Alan Moore,
individualist anarchist
English writer known for graphic novels.

"Efficiency' has come to mean vesting more and more power to managers, supervisors, and presumed 'efficiency experts,' so that actual producers have almost zero autonomy."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"When I say Anarchism you hear Chaos, Violence, Mayhem. When I say Anarchism I mean Cooperation, Voluntary Association, Mutual Aid"

— Simon Springer,
Anarcho-Geographer
Anarchist geographer and professor

"Every time we take a step we're surrounded by the ideological birds of prey who feed on our possibilities, fill themselves with concepts of our desires and reenslave us with beautiful combinations of words which seem to depict the world we failed to realize."

— Fredy Perlman,
anarcho-communist (1934 ‐ 1985)
Anarchist author and activist

"Merciless criticism and independent thinking are two traits of revolutionary thinking. Lovers, lunatics and poets are made of the same stuff"

— Bhagat Singh,
Revolutionary socialist (1907 ‐ 1931)
Revolutionary socialist and political activist.

"Anarchists are committed to treating other people as equals, rather than as either masters or subordinates."

— Roderick Long,
Anarcho-capitalist
Anarchist philosopher and author

"We must consciously create our own world, not according to mindless customs and destructive prejudices, but according to the canons of reason, reflection, and discourse that uniquely belong to our own species."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"He who negates present society, and seeks social conditions based on the sharing of property, is a revolutionary whether he calls himself an anarchist or a communist."

— Johann Most,
Anarcho-communist, Propagandist (1846 ‐ 1906)
Prominent German-American anarchist and newspaper editor

"The aims of anarchists and true communists are identical."

— Johann Most,
Anarcho-communist, Propagandist (1846 ‐ 1906)
Prominent German-American anarchist and newspaper editor

"Authority is something from which we are constantly subtracting, of which there remains always a residue, and which we attempt to make smaller and smaller."

— Federica Montseny,
Anarchist Feminist (1905 ‐ 1994)
Anarchist and author of novels

"Anarchism: The philosophy of a new social order based on liberty unrestricted by man-made law; the theory that all forms of government rest on violence, and are therefore wrong and harmful, as well as unnecessary."

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

"Stability means we run it. There are countries that are very stable. Cuba is stable, but that's not called stability."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"Whoever says "proletarian State" says "State Capitalism" whoever says "dictatorship of the Proletariat" says "Dictatorship of the Communist Party;" whoever says "strong government" says "Tsarist oligarchy of politicians.""

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

"An anarchist society, far from being a remote ideal, has become a precondition for the practice of ecological principles."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"We're supposed to worship Adam Smith but you're not supposed to read him. That's too dangerous. He's a dangerous radical."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"I regretted Mathillet's death because he was a prole like us, a slave of bourgeois society. It was his gesture that was fatal."

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

"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

"As soon as one identifies, challenges and overcomes illegitimate power, he or she is an anarchist. Most people are anarchists."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"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

"The history of anarchism is a history of unparalleled defeat and martyrdom, yet anarchists venerate their victimized forebears with a morbid devotion which occasions suspicion that the anarchists, like everybody else, think that the only good anarchist is a dead one."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author 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

"I can't see coherent political structures in the traditional sense lasting beyond the next twenty years, I don't think that would be possible."

— Alan Moore,
individualist anarchist
English writer known for graphic novels.

"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.

"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.

"For those who stubbornly seek freedom around the world, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

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