Emma Goldman Quotes (63 Quotes)

Anarchism ... stands for direct action, the open defiance of, and resistance to, all laws and restrictions, economic, social, and moral.

Love, the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbinger of hope, of joy, of ecstasy love, the defier of all laws, of all conventions love, the freest, the most powerful molder of human destiny how can such an all-compelling force be synonymous with that poor little State and Church-begotten weed, marriage.

Heaven must be an awfully dull place if the poor in spirit live there.

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

Patriotism ... is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods a superstition that robs man of his self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit.

Direct action is the logical, consistent method of Anarchism.

The political arena leaves one no alternative, one must either be a dunce or a rogue.

The individual whose vision encompasses the whole world often feels nowhere so hedged in and out of touch with his surroundings as in his native land.

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.

Prostitution, although hounded, imprisoned, and chained, is nevertheless the greatest triumph of Puritanism.

Oscar Wilde defines a perfect personality as one who develops under perfect conditions, who is not wounded, maimed, or in danger. A perfect personality, then, is only possible in a state of society where man is free to choose the mode of work, the conditions of work, and the freedom to work. One to whom the making of a table, the building of a house, or the tilling of the soil, is what the painting is to the artist and the discovery to the scientist -- the result of inspiration, of intense longing, and deep interest in work as a creative force.

Religion, the dominion of the human mind Property, the dominion of human needs and Government, the dominion of human conduct, represent the stronghold of man's enslavement and all the horrors it entails.

The most violent element in society is ignorance.

The ultimate end of all revolutionary social change is to establish the sanctity of human life, the dignity of man, the right of every human being to liberty and well-being.

There is no hope even that woman, with her right to vote, will ever purify politics.

Since every effort in our educational life seems to be directed toward making of the child a being foreign to itself, it must of necessity produce individuals foreign to one another, and in everlasting antagonism with each other.

To the indefinite, uncertain mind of the American radical the most contradictory ideas and methods are possible. The result is a sad chaos in the radical movement, a sort of intellectual hash, which has neither taste nor character.

Anarchism is the great liberator of man from the phantoms that have held him captive; it is the arbiter and pacifier of the two forces for individual and social harmony.

Methods and means cannot be separated from the ultimate aim.

Rather would I have the love songs of romantic ages, rather Don Juan and Madame Venus, rather an elopement by ladder and rope on a moonlight night, followed by the father's curse, mother's moans, and the moral comments of neighbors, than correctness and propriety measured by yardsticks.

Crime is naught but misdirected energy.

One cannot be too extreme in dealing with social ills; the extreme thing is generally the true thing.

The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.

The State is the altar of political freedom and, like the religious altar, it is maintained for the purpose of human sacrifice.

In the true sense one's native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.

The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved.

It is safe to say that no other superstition is so detrimental to growth, so enervating and paralyzing to the minds and hearts of the people, as the superstition of Morality.

Every daring attempt to make a great change in existing conditions, every lofty vision of new possibilities for the human race, has been labeled Utopian.

The higher mental development of woman, the less possible it is for her to meet a congenial male who will see in her, not only sex, but also the human being, the friend, the comrade and strong individuality, who cannot and ought not lose a single trait of her character.

Thus Dante's motto over Inferno applies with equal force to marriage Ye who enter here leave all hope behind.

All claims of education notwithstanding, the pupil will accept only that which his mind craves.

If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution.

The motto should not be: Forgive one another; rather understand one another.

Only when human sorrows are turned into a toy with glaring colors will baby people become interested - for a while at least. The people are a very fickle baby that must have new toys every day.

The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man's right to his body, or woman's right to her soul.

Whether our reformers admit it or not, the economic and social inferiority of women is responsible for prostitution

If love does not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a minus.

served as inspiration for Roger Baldwin, a future founder of the American Civil Liberties Union.

I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.

If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.

Every effort for progress, for enlightenment, for science, for religious, political, and economic liberty, emanates from the minority, and not from the mass.

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

Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name

No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.

It is essential that we realize once and for all that man is much more of a sex creature than a moral creature. The former is inherent, the other is grafted on.

Politics is the reflex of the business and industrial world.

Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another.

Women need not always keep their mouths shut and their wombs open.

No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution... revolution is but thought carried into action.

Merely external emancipation has made of the modern woman an artificial being. Now, woman is confronted with the necessity of emancipating herself from emancipation, if she really desires to be free.