Individualist-Anarchism – Anarchist Quotes

"No, Henry VIII could never have obtained an air conditioner or computer. But Henry VIII didn't spend half his month's income on rent, or live a single paycheck away from eviction."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"I -- anarchist and individualist -- don't want to and cannot embrace the cause of atheist communism, because I don't believe in the supreme elevation of the masses and therefore I refuse the realization of Anarchy understood as a social form of human life together."

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

"The legitimate, the equitable compensation for the loan of money, is the cost of labor in lending it and receiving it back again."

— Josiah Warren,
Inventor, anarchist theorist (1798 ‐ 1874)
American individualist anarchist, inventor

"Network executives, talk show hosts, and newspaper publishers and editors travel in the same social circle as the powerful state and corporate figures whom they're theoretically supposed to serve as watchdogs over."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"The natural effect of unfettered market competition is socialism."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"We need to return to heroic anarchism, to individual, violent, reckless, poetic, decentering audacity..."

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

"The anarchist is the one who refuses every cause for the joy of his life radiating from inner spiritual intensity."

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

"The internationalism of socialists is just an empty phrase."

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

"Rest in peace, poor Mata! Someone who never knew you has sworn to avenge you. And the memory of your blood-drenched eyes will drive his dagger; the vision of your mutilated body will render his bomb more effective."

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

"How many times this must be proven in history before the libertarian believers in violent overthrow of the social order see the light is a deep and serious question. Some people never learn."

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

"In short, progress is out of communism toward individualism, out of a condition of status to one of contract, out from authority toward liberty. But the "herd instinct" still remains."

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

"The outcome of this vote will, at best, slow down the rate at which the American government gravitates towards plutocracy, police statism and global corporate Empire."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"The life that society offers us is not a full, free and joyful life. It is a crushed, mutilated, humiliated life. We must refuse it."

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

"Fascism may be briefly described as the reluctant acquiescence of capitalists to governmental regimentation in order to stem the increasing impotency of a one-sided wealth accumulation to satisfy the needs of a country."

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

"The current structure of capital ownership and organization of production in our so-called "market" economy, reflects coercive state intervention prior to and extraneous to the market."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"Poverty is the cause of crime, and the laws that stand in the way of free production and exchange are the cause of poverty."

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

"The revolt of the individual against society is not given by that of the masses against governments."

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

"What constitutes equity is the greatest question of all. It is the "unknown quantity" that even algebra has failed to furnish!"

— Josiah Warren,
Inventor, anarchist theorist (1798 ‐ 1874)
American individualist anarchist, inventor

"If the state would only remove those laws that stand in the way of free land, free money, and transportation, its other statutes would, in course of time, become useless and "repeal" themselves."

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

"Governments involve the citizen in national and state responsibilities from which he would choose to be exempt; under these circumstances he can feel no security for person or property."

— Josiah Warren,
Inventor, anarchist theorist (1798 ‐ 1874)
American individualist anarchist, inventor

"I am an individualist because I am an anarchist; and I am an anarchist because I am a nihilist."

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

"The people are conservative: they are satisfied with the society they find. The minority are innovators instead and therefore they rebel."

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

"The anarchist believes that the government is the limit of liberty. He hopes, by destroying government, to expand liberty. The true limit is not government, but society. Government is a social product like another. We don't destroy a tree by cutting one of its branches."

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

"In other words, what Clinton wants is the opposite of free trade. She wants to keep the wealth of Africa in hands of the heirs and assigns of the same people who stole it, under colonialism."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"We might mention the monumental hypocrisy of the regulation of credit unions in the United States, which require that their membership must share some common bond, like working for the same employer."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"I know that I live and that I desire to live."

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

"I have a god (dio) like everyone else; but this god is myself (io)."

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

"Maybe I am crazy. But my madness is the most terrible rationality. I see further, I feel life more vividly."

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

"Eliminating the legal enforcement of DRM -- by criminal, mind, not civil law -- would effectively destroy all business models based on proprietary digital information."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"Capitalism -- a system of power in which ownership and control are divorced from labor -- could not survive in a free market."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"If cost is made the limit of price, everyone becomes interested in reducing cost, by bringing in all the economies, all the facilities to their aid. But, on the contrary, if cost does not govern the price, but every thing is priced at what it will bring, there are no such cooperating interests."

— Josiah Warren,
Inventor, anarchist theorist (1798 ‐ 1874)
American individualist anarchist, inventor

"I despise humanity because it is not my humanity. I hate tyrants and I detest slaves."

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

"The wise man knows that the words "The happiness of the people," have no meaning. Happiness is internal and individual. It can only be produced within oneself."

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

"There is no principle of anarchy that denies the right of free contract, and have I not a right to contract with others to live with them under the principles of communism?"

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

"Anarchism will be seen to be an idealistic philosophy in the sense that it believes freedom will come from the conscious activity of men. No automatic process is to bring it about."

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

"Not all those who are considered anarchists are pure anarchists. Tolstoy and Kropotkin have to be thrown out, having very little anarchy in their systems. They are anarchists only in the political sphere, and in all other relations between people they remain ardent communists."

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

"Are there any altruists who would go to hell in order that their neighbors should go to heaven? There is no hope of reward in hell, and a true altruist must expect no reward for his acts."

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

"The wise man notes that reforms change the names of things and not the things themselves. The slave became a serf, and then a salaried worker: nothing has been reformed but language. The wise man remains indifferent to these questions of philology."

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

"It is Marx's tortured truisms that give a plausibility to his works in their totality."

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

"Between these two classes, and with the growth of manufacture and commerce, there arose an intermediate class whose affluence depended on personal ingenuity and ability, in whose attitude entered little of either the master or slave psychology but who clearly saw that their well-being depended on the freedom to exercise their abilities."

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

"Right-libertarians aren't noted for siding with workers against employers, and right-to-work isn't an exception to the rule."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"In anarchy the Russian, Finn, Jew, Georgian, and Ukrainian are not enemies, but comrades. In short, there is only one conclusion: anarchy inevitably leads to internationalism."

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

"Vulgar libertarian apologists... seem to have trouble remembering, from one moment to the next, whether they're defending actually existing capitalism or free market principles."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"Free culture benefits consumers, it benefits artists, and it benefits the general culture. The only people who don't benefit are the parastic corporations of Big Content."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"The problem with the Confederates wasn't too little loyalty to the Union. It was too much loyalty -- to the Confederate states and the slave power they represented."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"In the first place, we are unequivocally opposed to the doctrine of total depravity. We hold that men are depraved only in so far as their surroundings make them so, and if those surroundings were removed, their depravity would disappear."

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

"Government intervention in the market is the main source of large fortunes."

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"The human animal is an animated alimentary canal. He has evolved from and differs from the worm only by the appendages which have developed on him."

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

"No future and no humanity, no communism and no anarchy is worthy of the sacrifice of my life."

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

"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

"Infinite diversity instead of unity is inevitable, especially in the progressive or transitionary stage."

— Josiah Warren,
Inventor, anarchist theorist (1798 ‐ 1874)
American individualist anarchist, inventor

"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

"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

"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

"The equal exchange of labor would give as great a reward for honest and useful employments as for useless and fraudulent ones, and individual and unequivocal responsibilities (if for no other reasons) would induce a preference for the honest."

— Josiah Warren,
Inventor, anarchist theorist (1798 ‐ 1874)
American individualist anarchist, inventor

"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 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.

"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.

"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

"The state, the society, the institutions, the body politic, the nation, the system, or customs we live in, must not be permitted to become primary, but must be secondary!"

— Josiah Warren,
Inventor, anarchist theorist (1798 ‐ 1874)
American individualist anarchist, inventor

"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

"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

"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

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

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

"Responsibility must be individual, or there is no responsibility at all."

— Josiah Warren,
Inventor, anarchist theorist (1798 ‐ 1874)
American individualist anarchist, inventor

"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

"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

"Wars are, probably, the greatest of all destroyers of property, and they originate chiefly in two roots. First, for direct or indirect plunder; secondly, for the privileges of governing."

— Josiah Warren,
Inventor, anarchist theorist (1798 ‐ 1874)
American individualist anarchist, inventor

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

— Kevin Carson,
Political theorist
American libertarian socialist and anarchist

"All social arrangements should admit of this freedom of choice of every individual and all subordination should be voluntary."

— Josiah Warren,
Inventor, anarchist theorist (1798 ‐ 1874)
American individualist anarchist, inventor

"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

"You must liberate your ego from all limitedness so entirely that it becomes a human ego."

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

"The situation is like this: they hired our parents to destroy this world, and now they'd like to put us to work rebuilding it, and -- to add insult to injury -- at a profit. The Invisible Committee Whoever will be free must make himself free. Freedom is no fairy gift to fall into a man's lap. What is freedom? To have the will to be responsible for one's self."

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

"The State always has the sole purpose to limit, tame, subordinate, the individual to make him subject to some generality or other;"

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

"Revolution is aimed at new arrangements; insurrection leads us no longer to let ourselves be arranged, but to arrange ourselves, and set no glittering hope on institutions"

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

"Moral influence takes its start where humiliation begins; yes, it is nothing else than this humiliation itself, the breaking and bending of the temper down to humility."

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

"All things are Nothing to Me"

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

"What do your laws amount to if no one obeys them?"

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

"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

"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

"Might is a fine thing, and useful for many purposes; for one goes further with a handful of might than with a bagful of right."

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

"Never does a State aim to bring in the free activity of individuals, but always that which is bound to the purpose of the State."

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

"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

"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.

"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.

"It is possible I can make very little of myself; but this little is everything, and better than what I allow to be made out of me by the might of others, by the training of custom, religion, the laws, the State."

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

"Whoever will be free must make himself free. Freedom is no fairy gift to fall into a man's lap. What is freedom? To have the will to be responsible for one's self."

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

"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.

"My power is my property. My power gives me property. My power am I l myself, and through it am I my property."

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

"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

"Do truth, freedom, humanity, justice, desire anything else than that you grow enthusiastic and serve them?"

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

"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

"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

"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 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.

"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.

"Fascism becomes less and less possible. We have to accept that we are moving towards some sort of anarchy."

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

"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.

"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.

"Things tend to organise themselves. If there is any message from contemporary science, it is surely that."

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

"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

"Sexually progressive cultures gave us mathematics, literature, philosophy, civilization and the rest, while sexually restrictive cultures gave us the Dark Ages and the Holocaust."

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

"Capitalism and communism felt like they were always going to be around, but it turns out they were just two ways of ordering an industrial society. If you were looking for more fundamental human political poles, you'd take anarchy and fascism, for my money."

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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"Only the shallow know themselves."

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

"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

"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

"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.

"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

"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.

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

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

"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.

"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

"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.

"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.

"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.

"Aggression is simply another name for government."

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

"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

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

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

"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

"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

"No one wants a boss, to be a boss, to work under a boss. The people you like working with are the people you respect as individuals."

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

"That the communist sees in you the man, the brother, is only the Sunday side of communism... If you were a "lazy-bones," he would not indeed fail to recognize the man in you, but would endeavour to cleanse him as a "lazy man" from laziness and to convert you to the faith that labor is man's "destiny and calling.""

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

"Charity creates a multitude of sins."

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

"So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men."

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

"The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime."

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

"Freedom can only be the whole of freedom; a piece of freedom is not freedom."

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

"There is one common struggle against those who have appropriated the earth, the money, and the machines."

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

"Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion."

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

"Did the seed of tyranny ever bear good fruit? And can you expect liberty to undo in a moment what oppression has been doing for ages?"

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

"Anarchism... teaches the possibility of a society in which the needs of life may be fully supplied for all, and in which the opportunities for complete development of mind and body shall be the heritage of all."

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

"Workers, the most absolutely necessary part of the whole social structure, without whose services none can either eat, or clothe, or shelter himself, are just the ones who get the least to eat, to wear, and to be housed withal."

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

"Do not preach the straight and narrow way while going joyously upon the wide one. Preach the wide one, or do not preach at all; but do not fool yourself by saying you would like to help usher in a free society, but you cannot sacrifice an armchair for it."

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

"Admittedly, I do have several bones - whole war fields full of bones, in fact - to pick with organised religion of whatever stripe."

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

"The English are always degrading truths into facts. When a truth becomes a fact it loses all its intellectual value."

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

"Whoever will be free must make himself free. Freedom is no fairy gift to fall into a man's lap."

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

"Society, from which we have everything, is a new master, a new spook, a new "supreme being," which "takes us into its service and allegiance!""

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

"I am unique. My flesh is not their flesh, my mind is not their mind."

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

"As for begging, it is safer to beg than to take, but it is finer to take than to beg."

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

"I am not appreciated in this society. I have the right to live, and while your imbecilic criminal society tries to stop me, well too bad for it, too bad for you!"

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

"It is only fair to state, with regard to modern journalists, that they always apologize to one in private for what they have written against one in public."

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

"The divine is God's concern; the human, man's. My concern is neither the divine nor the human, not the true, good, just, free, etc., but solely what is mine."

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

"Now for the remedy. It is in one word, the only word that ever brought equity anywhere - LIBERTY!"

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

"The spirit which animates Emma Goldman is the only one which will emancipate the slave from his slavery, the tyrant from his tyranny - the spirit which is willing to dare and suffer."

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

"There is an inverse relationship between imagination and money."

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

"The population of the world is gradually dividing into two classes, anarchists and criminals."

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

"Before the sacred, people lose all sense of power and all confidence; they occupy a powerless and humble attitude toward it. And yet no thing is sacred of itself, but by my declaring it sacred, by my declaration, my judgment, my bending the knee; in short, by my conscience."

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

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

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

"Once for all, then, we are not opposed to the punishment of thieves and murderers; we are opposed to their manufacture."

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

"Private property has crushed true individualism, and set up an individualism that is false. It has debarred one part of the community from being individual by starving them. It has debarred the other part of the community from being individual by putting them on the wrong road and encumbering them."

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

"Conspiracy theorists actually believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting... the truth is more frightening, nobody is in control. The world is rudderless."

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

"Truth, in the matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived."

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

"Every anarchist, as an anarchist, would be perfectly willing to surrender his own scheme directly, if he saw that another worked better."

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

"I think it can be clearly proven that the mental constitution of woman, like that of man, has never failed to rise where restrictions upon equal freedom have been torn down."

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

"What is freedom? To have the will to be responsible for one's self."

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

"Just as the worst slave-owners were those who were kind to their slaves, and so prevented the horror of the system being realized by those who suffered from it, and understood by those who contemplated it, so, in the present state of things in England, the people who do most harm are the people who try to do most good."

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

"Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious."

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

"I think it can be shown that the law makes ten criminals where it restrains one."

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

"It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information."

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

"Ask a method? Do you ask Spring her method? Which is more necessary, the sunshine or the rain? They are contradictory - yes; they destroy each other - yes, but from this destruction the flowers result."

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

"First, then, God, being all-just, wishes to do justice; being all-wise, knows what justice is; being all-powerful, can do justice. Why then injustice?"

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

"All the results of the mistakes of governments are quite admirable."

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

"There are three kinds of despots. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the body. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul and body alike. The first is called the Prince. The second is called the Pope. The third is called the People."

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

"Very young, the virus of justice was inoculated to me and it earned me many a trouble."

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

"The work of art is to dominate the spectator: the spectator is not to dominate the work of art."

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

"Alone, without any reference to his neighbours, without any interference, the artist can fashion a beautiful thing; and if he does not do it solely for his own pleasure, he is not an artist at all."

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

"Every state is a despotism."

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

"I die, as I have lived, a free spirit, an anarchist, owing no allegiance to rulers, heavenly or earthly."

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

"The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it."

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

"In a republic, all are lords, that is, all despotize one over another."

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

""Know thyself" was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, "Be thyself" shall be written."

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

"The republic is nothing whatever but absolute monarchy; for it makes no difference whether the monarch is called prince or people, both being a "majesty.""

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

"Monopoly and privilege must be destroyed, opportunity afforded, and competition encouraged. This is liberty's work, and "Down with Authority" her war-cry."

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

"We'll burn off our last round against the cops, and if they don't care to come, we'll certainly know how to find them."

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

"This brings us to anarchism, which may be described as the doctrine that all the affairs of men should be managed by individuals or voluntary associations, and that the state should be abolished."

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

"Of the exercise of a right power may deprive me; of the right itself, never."

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

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