"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."

"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."

"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."

"The influence that theoretical anarchists pretend to wield over the revolutionary movement is nil. Today the field is open to action, without weakness or retreat."

"Hanged in Chicago, beheaded in Germany, garroted in Jerez, shot in Barcelona, guillotined in Montbrison and in Paris, our dead are many; but you have not been able to destroy anarchy."

"[President of the court]: This hand that we today see covered in blood. [Emile]: My hands are covered in blood, like your red robe is!"

"Drawn at first to socialism, I was not slow in separating myself from that party. I have too much love of freedom, too much respect for individual initiative, too much repugnance for military organization, to assume a number in the ordered army of the fourth estate."