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Crime Is Naught But Misdirected Energy. So Long As Every Institution Of Today, Economic, Political, Social, And Moral, Conspires To Misdirect Human Energy Into Wrong Channels; So Long As Most People Are Out Of Place Doing The Things They Hate To Do, Living A Life They Loathe To Live, Crime Will Be Inevitable, And All The Laws On The Statutes Can Only Increase, But Never Do Away With, Crime.

-Emma Goldman

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Crime Is Naught But

Emma Goldman

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Crime Is Naught But Misdirected Energy. So Long As Every Institution Of Today, Economic, Political, Social, And Moral, Conspires To Misdirect Human Energy Into Wrong Channels; So Long As Most People Are Out Of Place Doing The Things They Hate To Do, Living A Life They Loathe To Live, Crime Will Be Inevitable, And All The Laws On The Statutes Can Only Increase, But Never Do Away With, Crime.

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Sure, Nothing Succeeds Like Success. Fact Is, Dearest, We Are Fools. We Cling To An Ideal No One Wants Or Cares About. I Am The Greater Fool Of The Two Of Us. I Go On Eating Out My Heart And Poisoning Every Moment Of My Life In The Attempt To Rouse People's Sensibilities. At Least If I Could Do It With Closed Eyes. The Irony Is I See The Futility Of My Efforts And Yet I Can't Let Go.

Consciously Or Unconsciously, Most Theists See In Gods And Devils, Heaven And Hell, Reward And Punishment, A Whip To Lash The People Into Obedience, Meekness And Contentment.... The Philosophy Of Atheism Expresses The Expansion And Growth Of The Human Mind. The Philosophy Of Theism, If We Can Call It A Philosophy, Is Static And Fixed.

Poor Human Nature, What Horrible Crimes Have Been Committed In Thy Name!

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.

Publishers, Theatrical Managers, And Critics Ask Not For The Quality Inherent In Creative Art, But Will It Meet With A Good Sale, Will It Suit The Palate Of The People? Alas, This Palate Is Like A Dumping Ground; It Relishes Anything That Needs No Mental Mastication. As A Result, The Mediocre, The Ordinary, The Commonplace Represents The Chief Literary Output.

We Say That If America Has Entered The War To Make The World Safe For Democracy, She Must First Make Democracy Safe In America.

Yes, Authority, Coercion, And Dependence Rest On The Mass, But Never Freedom Or The Free Unfoldment Of The Individual, Never The Birth Of A Free Society. The Socialist Demagogues Know That As Well As I, But They Maintain The Myth Of The Virtues Of The Majority, Because Their Very Scheme Of Life Means The Perpetuation Of Power.

Mother Liberty Caresses With Generous Affections...[those] Who, Armed With The Weapons Of High-minded Honesty,...have Grasped That The Freedom Of Each Is Rooted In The Freedom Of All.

The State Has No More Existence Than Gods And Devils Have. They Are Equally The Reflex And Creation Of Man, For Man, The Individual, Is The Only Reality. The State Is But The Shadow Of Man, The Shadow Of His Opaqueness, Of His Ignorance And Fear.

Someone Has Said That It Requires Less Mental Effort To Condemn Than To Think.

I'd Rather Have Roses On My Table Than Diamonds On My Neck.

[woman's] Life-long Economic Parasitism Has Utterly Blurred Her Conception Of The Meaning Of Equality.

The Majority Cannot Reason; It Has No Judgement. It Has Always Placed Its Destiny In The Hands Of Others; It Has Followed Its Leaders Even Into Destruction. The Mass Has Always Opposed, Condemned, And Hounded The Innovator, The Pioneer Of A New Truth.

We Americans Claim To Be A Peace-loving People. We Hate Bloodshed; We Are Opposed To Violence. Yet We Go Into Spasms Of Joy Over The Possibility Of Projecting Dynamite Bombs From Flying Machines Upon Helpless Citizens.

Men Towering High Above Such Political Pygmies, Men Of Refinement, Of Culture, Of Ability, Are Jeered Into Silence As Mollycoddles. It Is Absurd To Claim That Ours Is The Era Of Individualism. Ours Is Merely A More Poignant Repetition Of The Phenomenon Of All History: Every Effort For Progress, For Enlightenment, For Science, For Religious, Political, And Economic Liberty, Emanates From The Minority, And Not From The Mass. Today, As Ever, The Few Are Misunderstood, Hounded, Imprisoned, Tortured, And Killed.

The Average Mind Is Slow In Grasping A Truth, But When The Most Thoroughly Organized, Centralized Institution, Maintained At An Excessive National Expense, Has Proven A Complete Social Failure, The Dullest Must Begin To Question Its Right To Exist. The Time Is Past When We Can Be Content With Our Social Fabric Merely Because It Is "ordained By Divine Right," Or By The Majesty Of The Law.

Patriotism Is A Menace To Liberty.

We Shall Soon Be Obliged To Meet In Cellars, Or In Darkened Rooms With Closed Doors, And Speak In Whispers Lest Our Next Door Neighbors Should Hear That Freeborn Citizens Dare Not Speak In The Open.

The Poor, Stupid, Free American Citizen! Free To Starve, Free To Tramp The Highways Of This Great Country, He Enjoys Universal Suffrage, And By That Right, He Has Forged Chains Around His Limbs. The Reward That He Receives Is Stringent Labor Laws Prohibiting The Right Of Boycott, Of Picketing, Of Everything, Except The Right To Be Robbed Of The Fruits Of His Labor.

I May Be Arrested, I May Be Tried And Thrown Into Jail, But I Never Will Be Silent.

Anarchism, The Great Leaven Of Thought, Is Today Permeating Every Phase Of Human Endeavor.... It Is The Philosophy Of The Sovereignty Of The Individual. It Is The Theory Of Social Harmony. It Is The Great, Surging, Living Truth That Is Reconstructing The World, And That Will Usher In The Dawn.

The Inherent Tendency Of The State Is To Concentrate, To Narrow, And Monopolize All Social Activities; The Nature Of Revolution Is, On The Contrary, To Grow, To Broaden, And Disseminate Itself In Ever-wider Circles. In Other Words, The State Is Institutional And Static; Revolution Is Fluent, Dynamic.

Everywhere And Always, Since Its Very Inception, Christianity Has Turned The Earth Into A Vale Of Tears; Always It Has Made Of Life A Weak, Diseased Thing, Always It Has Instilled Fear In Man, Turning Him Into A Dual Being, Whose Life Energies Are Spent In The Struggle Between Body And Soul. In Decrying The Body As Something Evil, The Flesh As The Tempter To Everything That Is Sinful, Man Has Mutilated His Being In The Vain Attempt To Keep His Soul Pure, While His Body Rotted Away From The Injuries And Tortures Inflicted Upon It.

The Free Expression Of The Hopes And Aspirations Of A People Is The Greatest And Only Safety In A Sane Society.

We Americans Claim To Be A Peace-loving People. We Hate Bloodshed; We Are Opposed To Violence. Yet We Go Into Spasms Of Joy Over The Possibility Of Projecting Dynamite Bombs From Flying Machines Upon Helpless Citizens. We Are Ready To Hang, Electrocute, Or Lynch Anyone, Who, From Economic Necessity, Will Risk His Own Life In The Attempt Upon That Of Some Industrial Magnate. Yet Our Hearts Swell With Pride At The Thought That America Is Becoming The Most Powerful Nation On Earth, And That She Will Eventually Plant Her Iron Foot On The Necks Of All Other Nations. Such Is The Logic Of Patriotism.

Democracy Must First Be Safe For America Before It Can Be Safe For The World.

It Is Characteristic Of Theistic "tolerance" That No One Really Cares What The People Believe In, Just So They Believe Or Pretend To Believe.

Understand One Another.

... The Modern Drama, Operating Through The Double Channel Of Dramatist And Interpreter, Affecting As It Does Both Mind And Heart,is The Strongest Force In Developing Social Discontent, Swelling The Powerful Tide Of Unrest That Sweeps Onward And Over The Dam Of Ignorance, Prejudice, And Superstition.

Puritanism, In Whatever Expression, Is A Poisonous Germ. On The Surface Everything May Look Strong And Vigorous; Yet The Poison Works Its Way Persistently, Until The Entire Fabric Is Doomed.

After All, That Is What Laws Are For, To Be Made And Unmade.

Poor America, Of What Avail Is All Her Wealth, If The Individuals Comprising The Nation Are Wretchedly Poor? If They Live In Squalor, In Filth, In Crime, With Hope And Joy Gone, A Homeless, Soulless Army Of Human Prey.

I Believe - Indeed, I Know - That Whatever Is Fine And Beautiful In The Human Expresses And Asserts Itself In Spite Of Government, And Not Because Of It.

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.

Some People Never Seem To Learn From Experience. No Matter How Often They Had Seen The Lion Devour The Lamb, They Continued To Cling To The Hope That The Nature Of The Beast Might Change. If Only The Lion Could Get To Know The Lamb Better, They Argued, Or Talk Matters Over.

The Political Superstition Is Still Holding Sway Over The Hearts And Minds Of The Masses, But The True Lovers Of Liberty Will Have No More To Do With It. Instead, They Believe With Stirner That Man Has As Much Liberty As He Is Willing To Take. Anarchism Therefore Stands For Direct Action, The Open Defiance Of, And Resistance To, All Laws And Restrictions, Economic, Social, And Moral. But Defiance And Resistance Are Illegal. Therein Lies The Salvation Of Man. Everything Illegal Necessitates Integrity, Self-reliance And Courage.

True, The Movement For Woman's Rights Has Broken Many Old Fetters, But It Has Also Forged New Ones.

Out Of The Chaos, The Future Emerges In Harmony And Beauty.

Men And Women ... Do You Not Realize That The State Is The Worst Enemy You Have? It Is A Machine That Crushes You In Order To Sustain The Ruling Class, Your Masters. Like Naïve Children You Put Your Trust In Your Political Leaders. You Make It Possible For Them To Creep Into Your Confidence, Only To Have Them Betray You To The First Bidder. But Even Where There Is No Direct Betrayal, The Labour Politicians Make Common Cause With Your Enemies To Keep You In Leash, To Prevent Your Direct Action. The State Is The Pillar Of Capitalism, And It Is Ridiculous To Expect Any Redress From It.

Anarchism Asserts The Possibility Of An Organization Without Discipline, Fear, Or Punishment, And Without The Pressure Of Poverty: A New Social Organism Which Will Make An End To The Terrible Struggle For The Means Of Existence, --the Savage Struggle Which Undermines The Finest Qualities In Man, And Ever Widens The Social Abyss. In Short, Anarchism Strives Towards A Social Organization Which Will Establish Well-being For All.

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 To Be Loved. Indeed, If Partial Emancipation Is To Become A Complete And True Emancipation Of Woman, It Will Have To Do Away With The Ridiculous Notion That To Be Loved, To Be Sweetheart And Mother, Is Synonymous With Being Slave Or Subordinate. It Will Have To Do Away With The Absurd Notion Of The Dualism Of The Sexes, Or That Man And Woman Represent Two Antagonistic Worlds.

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.

There Can Be No Freedom In The Large Sense Of The Word, No Harmonious Development, So Long As Mercenary And Commercial Considerations Play An Important Part In The Determination Of Personal Conduct.

Imagine, Capitalist America Also Divides The Anarchists Into Two Categories, Philosophic And Criminal. The First Are Accepted In Highest Circles; One Of Them Is Even High In The Councils Of The Wilson Administration. The Second Category, To Which We Have The Honor Of Belonging, Is Persecuted And Often Imprisoned. Yours Also Seems To Be A Distinction Without A Difference. Don't You Think So?

What I Prized Most Was Freedom, Freedom To Do My Work, To Give Myself Spontaneously And Not Out Of Duty Or By Command. I Could Not Submit To Such Demands; Rather Would I Choose The Path Of A Homeless Wanderer; Yes, Even Go Without Love.

Religion And Morality Are A Much Better Whip To Keep People In Submission Than Even The Club And The Gun.

The History Of Human Growth Is At The Same Time The History Of Every New Idea Heralding The Approach Of A Brighter Dawn, And The Brighter Dawn Has Always Been Considered Illegal, Outside Of The Law.

The Most Unpardonable Sin In Society Is Independence Of Thought.

Crime Is Naught But Misdirected Energy.

Yes, Love Is Free; It Can Dwell In No Other Atmosphere.

How To Raise This Dead Level Of Theistic Belief Is Really A Matter Of Life And Death For All Denominations. Therefore Their Tolerance; But It Is A Tolerance Not Of Understanding; But Of Weakness.

Why Waste Your Life Working For A Few Shillings A Week In A Scullery, Eighteen Hours A Day, When A Woman Could Earn A Decent Wage By Selling Her Body Instead?

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.

I Was Called Before The Head Matron, A Tall Woman With A Stolid Face. She Began Taking My Pedigree. What Religion? Was The First Question. None, I Am An Atheist. Atheism Is Prohibited Here. You Will Have To Go To Church. I Replied That I Would Do Nothing Of The Kind. I Did Not Believe In Anything The Church Stood For And, Not Being A Hypocrite, I Would Not Attend.

The More Hideous The Mental Contortions, The Greater The Delight And Bravos Of The Mass.

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.

Leo Tolstoy ... Defines Patriotism As The Principle That Will Justify The Training Of Wholesale Murderers.

The Strongest Bulwark Of Authority Is Uniformity; The Least Divergence From It Is The Greatest Crime.

All Government, Whatever Its Forms Or Pretenses, Is A Dead Weight That Paralyzes The Free Spirit And Activities Of The Masses.

The Philosophy Of Atheism Represents A Concept Of Life Without Any Metaphysical Beyond Or Divine Regulator. It Is The Concept Of An Actual, Real World With Its Liberating, Expanding And Beautifying Possibilities, As Against An Unreal World, Which, With Its Spirits, Oracles, And Mean Contentment Has Kept Humanity In Helpless Degradation.

Revolution Is But Thought Carried Into Action.

More Pernicious Than The Power Of A Dictator Is That Of A Class; The Most Terrible - The Tyranny Of A Majority.

The Benefits Brought To The Russian People By Bolshevism Exist Only On Paper Painted In Glowing Colors By Bolshevist Propaganda.

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.

It Is The Absolutism Of Theism, Its Pernicious Influence Upon Humanity, Its Paralyzing Effect Upon Thought And Action, Which Atheism Is Fighting With All Its Power.

Peace Or Harmony Between The Sexes And Individuals Does Not Necessarily Depend On A Superficial Equalization Of Human Beings; Nor Does It Call For The Elimination Of Individual Traits And Peculiarities. The Problem That Confronts Us Today, And Which The Nearest Future Is To Solve, Is How To Be One's Self And Yet In Oneness With Others, To Feel Deeply With All Human Beings And Still Retain One's Own Characteristic Qualities.

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.

Whether Our Reformers Admit It Or Not, The Economic And Social Inferiority Of Women Is Responsible For Prostitution.

In Taking Out An Insurance Policy One Pays For It In Dollars And Cents, Always At Liberty To Discontinue Payments. If, However, Womans Premium Is A Husband, She Pays For It With Her Name, Her Privacy, Her Self-respect, Her Very Life, Until Death Doth Part.

Heaven Must Be An Awfully Dull Place If The Poor In Spirit Live There.

Leo Tolstoy, The Greatest Anti-patriot Of Our Time, Defines Patriotism As The Principle That Will Justify The Training Of Wholesale Murderers; A Trade That Requires Better Equipment In The Exercise Of Man-killing Than The Making Of Such Necessities As Shoes, Clothing, And Houses; A Trade That Guarantees Better Returns And Greater Glory Than That Of The Honest Workingman.

The Soldier's Business Is To Take Life. For That He Is Paid By The State, Eulogized By Political Charlatans And Upheld By Public Hysteria. But Woman's Function Is To Give Life, Yet Neither The State Nor Politicians Nor Public Opinion Have Ever Made The Slightest Provision In Return For The Life Woman Has Given.

What A Strange Development Of Patriotism That Turns A Thinking Being Into A Loyal Machine!

Direct Action Against The Authority In The Shop, Direct Action Against The Authority Of The Law, Direct Action Against The Invasive, Meddlesome Authority Of Our Moral Code, Is The Logical, Consistent Method Of Anarchism. Will It Not Lead To A Revolution? Indeed, It Will. No Real Social Change Has Ever Come Without A Revolution. People Are Either Not Familiar With Their History, Or They Have Not Yet Learned That Revolution Is But Thought Carried Into Action.

'what I Believe' Is A Process Rather Than A Finality. Finalities Are For Gods And Governments, Not For The Human Intellect.

The Dominant, Almost General, Idea Of Revolution - Particularly The Socialist Idea - Is That Revolution Is A Violent Change Of Social Conditions Through Which One Social Class, The Working Class, Becomes Dominant Over Another Class, The Capitalist Class. It Is The Conception Of A Purely Physical Change, And As Such It Involves Only Political Scene Shifting And Institutional Rearrangements

Redemption Through The Cross Is Worse Than Damnation, Because Of The Terrible Burden It Imposes Upon Humanity, Because Of The Effect It Has On The Human Soul, Fettering And Paralyzing It With The Weight Of The Burden Exacted Through The Death Of Christ.

The Individual Is The True Reality Of Life. A Cosmos In Himself, He Does Not Exist For The State, Nor For That Abstraction Called "society," Or The "nation," Which Is Only A Collection Of Individuals.

True Emancipation Begins Neither At The Polls Nor In The Courts. It Begins In Woman's Soul.

Atheism ... In Its Philosophic Aspect Refuses Allegiance Not Merely To A Definite Concept Of God, But It Refuses All Servitude To The God Idea, And Opposes The Theistic Principle As Such. Gods In Their Individual Function Are Not Half As Pernicious As The Principle Of Theism Which Represents The Belief In A Supernatural, Or Even Omnipotent, Power To Rule The Earth And Man Upon It. It Is The Absolutism Of Theism, Its Pernicious Influence Upon Humanity, Its Paralyzing Effect Upon Thought And Action, Which Atheism Is Fighting With All Its Power.

I Don't Care If A Man's Theory For Tomorrow Is Correct, I Care If His Spirit Of Today Is Correct.

It Requires Something More Than Personal Experience To Gain A Philosophy Or Point Of View From Any Specific Event. It Is The Quality Of Our Response To The Event And Our Capacity To Enter Into The Lives Of Others That Help Us To Make Their Lives And Experiences Our Own. In My Own Case My Convictions Have Derived And Developed From Events In The Lives Of Others As Well As From My Own Experience. What I Have Seen Meted Out To Others By Authority And Repression, Economic And Political, Transcends Anything I Myself May Have Endured.

Few Countries Have Produced Such Arrogance And Snobbishness As America. Particularly Is This True Of The American Woman Of The Middle Class. She Not Only Considers Herself The Equal Of Man, But His Superior, Especially In Her Purity, Goodness, And Morality. Small Wonder That The American Suffragist Claims For Her Vote The Most Miraculous Powers. In Her Exalted Conceit She Does Not See How Truly Enslaved She Is, Not So Much By Man, As By Her Own Silly Notions And Traditions. Suffrage Can Not Ameliorate That Sad Fact; It Can Only Accentuate It, As Indeed It Does.

Lack Of Fairness To An Opponent Is Essentially A Sign Of Weakness.

There Is No Such Thing As A Good Government. There Never Was. There Can't Be.

Religion Is A Superstition That Originated In Man`s Mental Inability To Solve Natural Phenomena. The Church Is An Orgainized Institution That Has Always Been Stumbling To Block Progress.

Women Need Not Always Keep Their Mouths Shut And Their Wombs Open.

Atheism In Its Negation Of Gods Is At The Same Time The Strongest Affirmation Of Man, And Through Man, The Eternal Yea To Life, Purpose, And Beauty.

Indeed, The Keynote Of Government Is Injustice. With The Arrogance And Self-sufficiency Of The King Who Could Do No Wrong, Governments Ordain, Judge, Condemn, And Punish The Most Insignificant Offenses, While Maintaining Themselves By The Greatest Of All Offenses, The Annihilation Of Individual Liberty.

Before We Can Forgive One Another, We Have To Understand One Another.

A Politician, He Knows That The Majority Cares Little For Ideals Or Integrity. What It Craves Is Display.

Life Without An Ideal Is Spiritual Death.

Spiritual Death

Corruption Of Politics Has Nothing To Do With The Morals, Or The Laxity Of Morals, Of Various Political Personalities. Its Cause Is Altogether A Material One.

Order Derived Through Submission And Maintained By Terror Is Not Much Of A Safe Guaranty; Yet That Is The Only "order" That Governments Have Ever Maintained. True Social Harmony Grows Naturally Out Of Solidarity Of Interests. In A Society Where Those Who Always Work Never Have Anything, While Those Who Never Work Enjoy Everything, Solidarity Of Interests Is Non-existent; Hence Social Harmony Is But A Myth.... Thus The Entire Arsenal Of Governments - Laws, Police, Soldiers, The Courts, Legislatures, Prisons - Is Strenuously Engaged In "harmonizing" The Most Antagonistic Elements In Society.

Marriage Is Primarily An Economic Arrangement, An Insurance Pact. It Differs From The Ordinary Life Insurance Agreement Only In That It Is More Binding, More Exacting.

No Real Social Change Has Ever Been Brought About Without A Revolution... Revolution Is But Thought Carried Into Action.

'rugged Individualism' Has Meant All The 'individualism' For The Masters, While The People Are Regimented Into A Slave Caste To Serve A Handful Of Self-seeking 'supermen.' America Is Perhaps The Best Representative Of This Kind Of Individualism, In Whose Name Political Tyranny And Social Oppression Are Defended And Held Up As Virtues; While Every Aspiration And Attempt Of Man To Gain Freedom And Social Opportunity To Live Is Denounced As 'un-american' And Evil In The Name Of That Same Individuality.

Political Violence Is Organized Violence On The Top Which Creates Individual Violence At The Bottom.

The State, Every Government Whatever Its Form, Character Or Color - Be It Absolute Or Constitutional, Monarchy Or Republic, Fascist, Nazi Or Bolshevik - Is By Its Very Nature Conservative, Static, Intolerant Of Change And Opposed To It.

So-called Individualism Is The Social And Economic Laissez-faire: The Exploitation Of The Masses By The Classes By Means Of Legal Trickery, Spiritual Debasement And Systematic Indoctrination Of The Servile Spirit, Which Process Is Known As 'education'.

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.

The Philosophy Of Atheism Has Its Root In The Earth, In This Life; Its Aim Is The Emancipation Of The Human Race From All God-heads, Be They Judaic, Christian, Mohammedan, Buddhistic, Brahmanistic, Or What Not. Mankind Has Been Punished Long And Heavily For Having Created Its Gods, Nothing But Pain And Persecution, Have Been Man's Lot Since Gods Began. There Is But One Way Out Of This Blunder. Man Must Break His Fetters Which Have Chained Him To The Gates Of Heaven And Hell, So That He Can Begin To Fashion Out Of His Reawakened And Illumined Consciousness A New World Upon The Earth.

The Whole History Of Man Is Continuous Proof Of The Maxim That To Divest One's Methods Of Ethical Concepts Means To Sink Into The Depths Of Utter Demoralization.

Predigested Food' Should Be Inscribed Over Every Hall Of Learning As A Warning To All Who Do Not Wish To Lose Their Own Personalities And Their Original Sense Of Judgment.

Conceit, Arrogance, And Egotism Are The Essentials Of Patriotism.

If Elections Really Changed Anything, They Would Be Outlawed.

Christianity Is Most Admirably Adapted To The Training Of Slaves, To The Perpetuation Of A Slave Society; In Short, To The Very Conditions Confronting Us Today. The Rulers Of The Earth Have Realized Long Ago What Potent Poison Inheres In The Christian Religion. That Is The Reason They Foster It; That Is Why They Leave Nothing Undone To Instill It Into The Blood Of The People. They Know Only Too Well That The Subtleness Of The Christian Teachings Is A More Powerful Protection Against Rebellion And Discontent Than The Club Or The Gun.

The People Are Urged To Be Patriotic ... By Sacrificing Their Own Children. Patriotism Requires Allegience To The Flag, Which Means Obedience And Readiness To Kill Father, Mother, Brother, Sister.

Pettiness Separates; Breadth Unites. Let Us Be Broad And Big.

There Is No Hope Even That Woman, With Her Right To Vote, Will Ever Purify Politics.

The Import Is Not The Kind Of Work Woman Does, But Rather The Quality Of The Work She Furnishes.

Perhaps Even More Than Constituted Authority, It Is Social Uniformity And Sameness That Harass The Individual Most. His Very "uniqueness," "separateness" And "differentiation" Make Him An Alien, Not Only In His Native Place, But Even In His Own Home. Often More So Than The Foreign Born Who Generally Falls In With The Established.

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.

One Cannot Be Too Extreme In Dealing With Social Ills; The Extreme Thing Is Generally The True Thing.

I Demand The Independence Of Woman, Her Right To Support Herself; To Live For Herself; To Love Whomever She Pleases, Or As Many As She Pleases. I Demand Freedom For Both Sexes, Freedom Of Action, Freedom In Love And Freedom In Motherhood.

Always, At Every Period, The Few Were The Banner Bearers Of A Great Idea, Of Liberating Effort. Not So The Mass, The Leaden Weight Of Which Does Not Let It Move.

Christ And His Teachings Are The Embodiment Of Submission, Of Inertia, Of The Denial Of Life; Hence Responsible For The Things Done In Their Name.

Perhaps Even More Than Constituted Authority, It Is Social Uniformity And Sameness That Harass The Individual Most.

The Most Violent Element In Society Is Ignorance.

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.

The Pathos Of It All Is That The America Which Is To Be Protected By A Huge Military Force Is Not The America Of The People, But That Of The Privileged Class.

Public School - Where The Human Mind Is Drilled And Manipulated Into Submission To Various Social And Moral Spooks, And Thus Fitted To Continue Our System Of Exploitation And Oppression.

Even Were The Workers Able To Have Their Own Representatives, For Which Our Good Socialist Politicians Are Clamoring, What Chances Are There For Their Honesty And Good Faith?

Woman, Essentially A Purist, Is Naturally Bigoted And Relentless In Her Effort To Make Others As Good As She Thinks They Ought To Be.

The Custom Of Procuring Abortions Has Reached Such Appalling Proportions In America As To Be Beyond Belief... So Great Is The Misery Of The Working Classes That Seventeen Abortions Are Committed In Every One Hundred Pregnancies.

Our Institutions And Conditions Rest Upon Deep-seated Ideas. To Change Those Conditions And At The Same Time Leave The Underlying Ideas And Values Intact Means Only A Superficial Transformation, One That Cannot Be Permanent Or Bring Real Betterment. It Is A Change Of Form Only, Not Of Substance, As So Tragically Proven By Russia.

‎civilization Has Been A Continuous Struggle Of The Individual Or Of Groups Of Individuals Against The State And Even Against "society," That Is, Against The Majority Subdued And Hypnotized By The State And State Worship.

As To A Thorough Eradication Of Prostitution, Nothing Can Accomplish That Save A Complete Transvaluation Of All Accepted Values--especially The Moral Ones--coupled With The Abolition Of Industrial Slavery.

The Worker Who Knows The Cause Of His Misery, Who Understands The Make-up Of Our Iniquitous Social And Industrial System Can Do More For Himself And His Kind Than Christ And The Followers Of Christ Have Ever Done For Humanity; Certainly More Than Meek Patience, Ignorance, And Submission Have Done.

Nora Leaves Her Husband, Not-as The Stupid Critic Would Have It-because She Is Tired Of Her Responsibilities Or Feels The Need Of Woman's Rights, But Because She Has Come To Know That For Eight Years She Had Lived With A Stranger And Borne Him Children. Can There Be Anything More Humiliating, More Degrading Than A Life-long Proximity Between Two Strangers? No Need For The Woman To Know Anything Of The Man, Save His Income. As To The Knowledge Of The Woman-what Is There To Know Except That She Has A Pleasing Appearance?

If Not For The Direct Action Of A John Brown And His Comrades, America Would Still Trade In The Flesh Of The Black Man.

The Powers Know That The People At Large Are Like Children Whose Despair, Sorrow, And Tears Can Be Turned Into Joy With A Little Toy. ... An Army And Navy Represents The People's Toys.

In Modern Capitalism Economic Exploitation Rather Than Political Oppression Is The Real Enemy Of The People.

Revolution Is Indeed A Violent Process. But If It Is To Result Only In A Change Of Dictatorship, In A Shifting Of Names And Political Personalities, Then It Is Hardly Worth While.

Politics Is The Reflex Of The Business And Industrial World, The Mottos Of Which Are: 'to Take Is More Blessed Than To Give'; 'buy Cheap And Sell Dear'; 'one Soiled Hand Washes The Other.

Direct Action Is The Logical, Consistent Method Of Anarchism.

What's Wrong With Lust? You Fancy Your Neighbor's Husband So What Are You Supposed To Do? Poke Your Eyes Out So That You Can't See Him Anymore? Acting On It Is Maybe A Sin ... But My God, Just Lusting After Someone? Is That So Bad?

The Function Of Militarism Is To Kill. It Cannot Live Except Through Murder.

The Experience Of Every-day Life Fully Proves That The Armed Individual Is Invariably Anxious To Try His Strength. The Same Is Historically True Of Governments. Really Peaceful Countries Do Not Waste Life And Energy In War Preparations, With The Result That Peace Is Maintained.

Christianity Is Most Admirably Adapted To The Training Of Slaves, To The Perpetuation Of A Slave Society.

True, We Have No Conscription; That Is, Men Are Not Usually Forced To Enlist In The Army, But We Have Developed A Far More Exacting And Rigid Force-necessity.

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.

"what Would You Do With The Lazy Ones, Who Would Not Work?" "no One Is Lazy. They Grow Hopeless From The Misery Of Their Present Existence, And Give Up. Under Our Order Of Things, Every Man Would Do The Work He Liked, And Would Have As Much As His Neighbor, So Could Not Be Unhappy And Discouraged."

In The Struggle For Supremacy The Various Political Parties Outdo Each Other In Trickery, Deceit, Cunning, And Shady Machinations, Confident That The One Who Succeeds Is Sure To Be Hailed By The Majority As The Victor. That Is The Only God--success. As To What Expense, What Terrible Cost To Character, Is Of No Moment.

To The Moralist Prostitution Does Not Consist So Much In The Fact That The Woman Sells Her Body, But Rather That She Sells It Out Of Wedlock.

All Claims Of Education Notwithstanding, The Pupil Will Accept Only That Which His Mind Craves.

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.

Art Is A Part Of The Rebellion Against The Realities Of Its Unfulfilled Desire.

The Conception Of Gods Originated In Fear And Curiosity. Primitive Man, Unable To Understand The Phenomena Of Nature, And Harassed By Them, Saw In Every Terrifying Manifestation Some Sinister Force Expressly Directed Against Him; And As Ignorance And Fear Are The Parents Of All Superstition, The Troubled Fancy Of Primitive Man Wove The God Idea.

... Nothing Satisfies The Craving Of Most Women So Much As Scandal.

Idealists Foolish Enough To Throw Caution To The Winds Have Advanced Mankind And Have Enriched The World.

Readiness,' Far Far From Assuring Peace, Has At All Times And In All Countries Been Instrumental In Precipitating Armed Conflicts.

Mankind Has Been Punished Long And Heavily For Having Created Its Gods; Nothing But Pain And Persecution Have Been Man's Lot Since Gods Began.

The Greater The Mental Charlatan, The More Definite His Insistence On The Wickedness And Weaknesses Of Human Nature. Yet How Can Anyone Speak Of It Today, With Every Soul In A Prison, With Every Heart Fettered, Wounded, And Maimed?... With Human Nature Caged In A Narrow Space, Whipped Daily Into Submission, How Can We Speak Of Its Potentialities?

Thus Dante's Motto Over Inferno Applies With Equal Force To Marriage: "ye Who Enter Here Leave All Hope Behind.

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.

Man Must Get Back To Himself Before He Can Learn His Relation To His Fellows. Prometheus Chained To The Rock Of Ages Is Doomed To Remain The Prey Of The Vultures Of Darkness. Unbind Prometheus, And You Dispel The Night And Its Horrors.

Have Not All Theists Painted Their Deity As The God Of Love And Goodness? Yet After Thousands Of Years Of Such Preachments The Gods Remain Deaf To The Agony Of The Human Race. Confucius Cares Not For The Poverty, Squalor And Misery Of The People Of China. Buddha Remains Undisturbed In His Philosophical Indifference To The Famine And Starvation Of Outraged Hindoos; Jahve Continues Deaf To The Bitter Cry Of Israel; While Jesus Refuses To Rise From The Dead Against His Christians Who Are Butchering Each Other.

Peter Kropotkin...was Recognized By Friend And Foe As One Of The Greatest Minds...of The Nineteenth Century...the Lucidity And Brilliance Of His Mind Combined With His Warm-heartednes S Into The Harmonious Whole Of A Fascinating And Gracious Personality.

Morality And Its Victim, The Mother - What A Terrible Picture! Is There Indeed Anything More Terrible, More Criminal, Than Our Glorified Sacred Function Of Motherhood?

Religion! How It Dominates Man's Mind, How It Humiliates And Degrades His Soul. God Is Everything, Man Is Nothing, Says Religion.but Out Of That Nothing God Has Created A Kingdom So Despotic, So Tyrannical, So Cruel, So Terribly Exacting That Naught But Gloom And Tears And Blood Have Ruled The World Since Gods Began.

John Burroughs Has Stated That Experimental Study Of Animals In Captivity Is Absolutely Useless. Their Character, Their Habits, Their Appetites Undergo A Complete Transformation When Torn From Their Soil In Field And Forest. With Human Nature Caged In A Narrow Space, Whipped Daily Into Submission, How Can We Speak Of Its Potentialities?

Jealousy Is The Very Reverse Of Understanding, Of Sympathy, And Of Generous Feeling. Never Has Jealousy Added To Character, Never Does It Make The Individual Big And Fine.

It Cannot Be Sufficiently Emphasized That Revolution Is In Vain Unless Inspired By Its Ultimate Ideal. Revolutionary Methods Must Be In Tune With Revolutionary Aims.

Today Is The Parent Of Tomorrow. The Present Casts Its Shadow Far Into The Future. That Is The Law Of Life, Individual And Social. Revolution That Divests Itself Of Ethical Values Thereby Lays The Foundation Of Injustice, Deceit, And Oppression For The Future Society. The Means Used To Prepare The Future Become Its Cornerstone.

Love Needs No Protection; It Is Its Own Protection.

Jealousy Is Indeed A Poor Medium To Secure Love, But It Is A Secure Medium To Destroy One's Self-respect. For Jealous People, Like Dope-fiends, Stoop To The Lowest Level And In The End Inspire Only Disgust And Loathing.

Under Miserable Conditions Of Life, Any Vision Of The Possibility Of Better Things Makes The Present Misery More Intolerable, And Spurs Those Who Suffer To The Most Energetic Struggles To Improve Their Lot, And If These Struggles Only Immediately Result In Sharper Misery, The Outcome Is Sheer Desperation.

People Have Only As Much Liberty As They Have The Intelligence To Want And The Courage To Take.

How Long Would Authority ... Exist, If Not For The Willingness Of The Mass To Become Soldiers, Policemen, Jailers, And Hangmen.

When We Have Undermined The Patriotic Lie, We Shall Have Cleared The Path For The Great Structure Where All Shall Be United Into A Universal Brotherhood — A Truly Free Society.

Have Not All Theists Painted Their Deity As The God Of Love And Goodness? Yet After Thousands Of Years Of Such Preachments The Gods Remain Deaf To The Agony Of The Human Race.

From Infancy, Almost, The Average Girl Is Told That Marriage Is Her Ultimate Goal; Therefore Her Training And Education Must Be Directed Toward That End. Like The Mute Beast Fattened For Slaughter, She Is Prepared For That.

The State Is A Term For The Legislative And Administrative Machinery Whereby Certain Business Of The People Is Transacted, And Badly So.

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.

Success Achieved By The Most Contemptible Means Cannot But Destroy The Soul. ... It Helps To Cover Up The Inner Corruption And Gradually Dulls One's Scruples, So That Those Who Begin With Some High Ambition Cannot, Even If They Would, Create Anything Out Of Themselves.

To Call The State An Organism Shows A Diseased Tendency To Make A Fetish Of Words.

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.

... Woman's Narrow And Purist Attitude Toward Life Makes Her A Greater Danger To Liberty Wherever She Has Political Power. Man Haslong Overcome The Superstitions That Still Engulf Women.

If They Do Not Give You Work, Demand Bread. If They Deny You Both, Take Bread. It Is Your Sacred Right!

Wealth Means Power: The Power To Subdue, To Crush, To Exploit, The Power To Enslave, To Outrage, To Degrade.

When The Child Has Reached Manhood He Is Thoroughly Saturated With The Belief That He Is Chosen By The Lord Himself To Defend His Country Against The Attack Or Invasion Of Any Foreigner. It Is For That Purpose That We Are Clamoring For A Greater Army And Navy, More Battleships And Ammunition.

It Is Organized Violence On Top Which Creates Individual Violence At The Bottom. It Is The Accumulated Indignation Against Organized Wrong, Organized Crime, Organized Injustice, Which Drives The Political Offender To Act.

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.

Anarchism, Then, Really Stands For The Liberation Of The Human Mind From The Dominion Of Religion.

The Most Absurd Apology For Authority And Law Is That They Serve To Diminish Crime. Aside From The Fact That The State Is Itself The Greatest Criminal, Breaking Every Written And Natural Law, Stealing In The Form Of Taxes, Killing In The Form Of War And Capital Punishment, It Has Come To An Absolute Standstill In Coping With Crime. It Has Failed Utterly To Destroy Or Even Minimize The Horrible Scourge Of Its Own Creation.

Poor Human Nature, What Horrible Crimes Have Been Committed In Thy Name! Every Fool, From King To Policeman, From The Flatheaded Parson To The Visionless Dabbler In Science, Presumes To Speak Authoritatively Of Human Nature. The Greater The Mental Charlatan, The More Definite His Insistence On The Wickedness And Weaknesses Of Human Nature.

The God Idea Is Growing More Impersonal And Nebulous In Proportion As The Human Mind Is Learning To Understand Natural Phenomena And In The Degree That Science Progressively Correlates Human And Social Events.

On Rare Occasions One Does Hear Of A Miraculous Case Of A Married Couple Falling In Love After Marriage, But On Close Examination It Will Be Found That It Is A Mere Adjustment To The Inevitable.

The American Suffrage Movement Has Been, Until Very Recently, Altogether A Parlor Affair, Absolutely Detached From The Economic Needs Of The People.

Let Us Not Overlook Vital Things, Because Of The Bulk Of Trifles Confronting Us.

So Few People Realize That Preparedness Never Leads To Peace, But That It Is Indeed The Road To Universal Slaughter.

The State Is The Altar Of Political Freedom And, Like The Religious Altar, It Is Maintained For The Purpose Of Human Sacrifice.

Do Not All Theists Insist That There Can Be No Morality, No Justice, Honesty Or Fidelity Without The Belief In A Divine Power? Based Upon Fear And Hope, Such Morality Has Always Been A Vile Product, Imbued Partiy With Self-righteousness, Partly With Hypocrisy.

The Spirit Of Militarism Has Already Permeated All Walks Of Life. Indeed, I Am Convinced That Militarism Is A Greater Danger Here Than Anywhere Else, Because Of The Many Bribes Capitalism Holds Out To Those Whom It Wishes To Destroy.

The Political Arena Leaves One No Alternative, One Must Either Be A Dunce Or A Rogue.

When We Can't Dream Any Longer We Die.

What Is Generally Regarded As Success - Acquisition Of Wealth, The Capture Of Power Or Social Prestige - I Consider The Most Dismal Failures. I Hold When It Is Said Of A Man That He Has Arrived, It Means That He Is Finished - His Development Has Stopped At That Point.

There Is No Greater Fallacy Than The Belief That Aims And Purposes Are One Thing, While Methods And Tactics Are Another ... All Human Experience Teaches That Methods And Means Cannot Be Separated From The Ultimate Aim.

Politics Is The Reflex Of The Business And Industrial World.

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