"Anarchism, nihilism, and terrorism are often mistakenly equated, and in most dictionaries will be found at least two definitions of the anarchist. One presents him as a man who believes that government must die before freedom can live. The other dismisses him as a mere promoter of disorder who offers nothing in place of the order he destroys."
"In the midst of the unspeakable chaos of philosophies of all kinds and of various moralities we can cull out the constant and persistent tendency which pushes the individual towards life. Towards an ever better life, freer and more noble: that is, towards happiness."
"The demand for equality is nothing other than the demand: equal rights for all!"
""Whoever denies authority and fights against it is an anarchist," said Sebastien Faure. The definition is tempting in its simplicity, but simplicity is the first thing to guard against in writing a history of anarchism."
"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."
"The anarchist teaching prescribes no method of struggle and rejects none which is in harmony with self-determination and free will."
"In the United States, the New Left has agreed to regard itself as Marxist and speaks of seizing power and building socialism, although it is strongly opposed to centralized power and it has no economic theory whatever for a society and technology like ours."
"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."
"There cannot be a history of anarchism in the sense of establishing a permanent state of things called "anarchist." It is always a continual coping with the next situation, and a vigilance to make sure that past freedoms are not lost and do not turn into the opposite."
"Like such titles as Christian and Quaker, "anarchist" was in the end proudly adopted by one of those against whom it had been used in condemnation."
"The complete transformation of everyone's living conditions can never be achieved on the path of slow development, through which at most improvements within a social system are possible."
"Either it is true that humanity by intelligence and by the practice of mutual aid and direct action can reverse processes which appear socially inevitable, or humanity will become extinct by simple maladaptation."
"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."
"In this country, where we have no continuing anarchist tradition, the young hardly know their tendency at all."
"Anarchists emphatically reject a morality which denies the original concepts of right and wrong."
"I passionately love humanity, and have dedicated my best efforts to the fight for the oppressed. All tyrants disgust me -- and all those who put up with them, adulate them, support them. After having brought them down will I make myself a tyrant in their place? I would be disgusted with myself."
"People, beware of demagogues. They are your worst enemies. They caress you only so they can better shear you."
"The protesting students are anarchist because they are in a historical situation to which anarchism is their only possible response."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"The freedom of everyone, and thereby the freedom of each individual, requires community in socialism."
"The domination of man by the creation of man is even more ridiculous than the domination of man by man."
"Is work a social or a natural law? Work is a natural law worsened by society."
"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."
"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."
"In the face of dogmas, of despots, of the sentimental, of charlatans and regimenters, humanity's future belongs to reason."
"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."
"For Christian anarchists...the goal of anarchy is theonomy — the rule, the ordering, the arky of God."
"An anarchist is someone who doesn't need a cop to make him behave."
"I dislike communism because it is undemocratic, and capitalism because it favors exploitation."
"I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment."
"The only generals that we should follow are the generals of the little tin soldiers."
"Good people don't much like those who tread a different path."
"Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate."
"People seem good while they are oppressed, but they only wish to become oppressors in their turn: life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim."
"All that marching music doesn't concern me."
"Instead of taking aim at some vague enemy, it's better wait a moment for him to turn into a friend."
"The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell."
"Nine-tenths of the activities of modern government are harmful; therefore the worse they are performed, the better."
"An anarchist is a man who is careful to always use pedestrian crossings, because he utterly detests talking with policemen."
"The only revolution is to improve yourself, hoping that others follow. Then the world will improve."
"Patriotism: a willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons."
